More than meets the eye
by tenebrae di oblio
Summary: A smarter, stronger Haki weildeing Luffy appears at Marineford...challenging the views that the world has on him. Watch as a different Monkey D Luffy takes on the world...WARNING SPOILERS FOR MARINEFORD AND ONWARDS! Contains both 'Arigato' and 'Ittai nani ga'
1. Arigato

**Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece or any of the characters in it. If I had then Ace, Sabo and Whitebeard wouldn't have died.**

**Summary: What if Luffy had know about Haki before Marineford but he hadn't used it. What would've happened if Luffy had gone to Marineford fully equipped with his Haki and the knowledge on how to use it… And what if he was a hell lot smarter than he let on…?**

**BTW this story will be my first and I would love any compliments and criticism for it~ **

Arigato

Luffy's POV

It was official, I was bat shit insane. Not only had I gone to friggin' Impel Down of all places to try and rescue my brother, BUT I had failed miserably in rescuing him. And now those friggin' bastards from the fuckin' government were going to execute him at Marineford. And the whole damn thing was going to be broadcasted to the whole bloody world. _My brother's execution is not entertainment for fuck's sake! _To make the whole damn thing worse, this all could've been avoided if I'd just used my damn Haki!

Yeah, I knew about Haki. I could use it since I was little…but it was too much of a damn risk, if I lost control for just a second I could destroy everything around me, nothing would've survived and my nakama would've died. So, I created a barrier, a block, friggin' wall, whatever the hell ya want to call it, around my Haki. I'd locked it up tight inside me so that no matter how angry I was I wouldn't access my Haki and hurt my nakama.

But the wall had been cracked when that Kuma bastard had separated me from my crew, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, Robin, Franky and Brook, they all vanished right in front of me. That was enough to crack the wall, at the time I hadn't realised but it became pretty obvious when I had used It on Sandersonia and Marigold when they were about to break Margaret's statue. For an instant I had panicked but I'd managed to hide my surprise behind a stupid grin and a stupid comment so that they didn't suspect anything. I'm actually rather smart but if I hide it then I can use it against my enemies when I fight them, gives me an advantage, so far I've never had to actually show any of my enemies how smart I really am. Yeah I came close with CP9 and Magdellan but in the end I had won or been defeated before I had time to use it.

Getting off topic. Anyway, so I'm currently sitting on the deck of a ship currently sailing towards Marineford. Trying to take down the friggin' wall that was blocking my Haki, it would've been simple if I just destroyed it but that would release my Haki explosively and anyone who wasn't conditioned against it would be knocked out before I could rein it in, so that option was out. Instead I had to take it down mental brick by mental brick but it was taking_ forever_. At this rate we'd arrive before I could finish taking it down.

I may have been exaggerating when I said that taking down the wall was taking forever because a ½ hour later I was just fiddling with the last 'brick'. I wacked it and pummelled it with my 'fists' but it wouldn't budge. I massaged my temples for a second, this was going to give me such a headache later, and placed my 'hands' on the 'brick' and pulled. It slid away and vanished, I felt like punching myself, was that all it took?! Anyway the vanishing of the brick gave me a chance to actually see the power of my Haki. I opened my eyes and let a sadistic smile creep onto my face, terrifying the other pirates on the ship shitless; those marine bastards were going to pay for taking my brother.

I was falling. Yeah it didn't sound too bad, I was made of rubber so if I hit the ground I would be fine, but my no.1 concern (not fear, pirates don't show fear, CONCERN) was that I was falling towards the sea now for any normal human this would have been better then hitting the ground but because I was a devil fruit user I was screwed if I hit the sea. I went to throw out a rubber arm to avoid the water. Why was only this section of the sea not covered in ice? Oh well, if it was then all my allies would've been killed, so I suppose this was the better option. My last thought before I hit the seas was, I sure hope that someone has the mind to drag me out of the water or I WILL haunt them in the afterlife.

Yay~ Jimbe saved my ass now I can get on with saving Ace. I heard Ace shout out my name from the execution tower…wait a goddamn second…_execution tower?! Was my brother's EXECUTION a bloody SPORT for them?! Oh yeah their executing MY brother and broadcasting it to the world, of course their trying to make a statement! Let's kill someone live it'll be great for ratings! _Fucking government! Not on my watch!

"ACE!" I shout back at him. I hear some of the marines shouting about Crocodile, Buggy, Iva and Jimbe. So they've noticed my 'allies' have they. Well it won't save them, I'm gonna take down every single one of them to get to Ace. I can see the 'war lords', admirals, Granddad, Smokey and the Bastard Sengoku muttering about something or other. Most likely me and my 'rescue Ace' party, but I don't care, I'm already using my surprisingly good strategic abilities to make up a plan to get to Ace and back to Whitebeard. I hope that my friends are watching this because this will make their jaws hit the floor, although Robin and Zoro may have noticed my actual intelligence, Zoro knows me the best and Robin is very perceptive and has probably already seen through my mask.

Jimbe shouts at the Bastard that he's resigning from the Shichibukai (wow that's a mouthful) and Crocodile disappears to off Whitebeard, as if I can't see him. I slip into Gear Second and since I'm covered in water this will be easy, I'm already after him before he's even halfway to Whitebeard and I caught him just as he swings his hook at Whitebeard's back. Per-lease~ as if Crocodile could even hit him, I'm doing him a favour really, the Commanders under Whitebeard would probably kill him (if Whitebeard didn't) for trying to harm their boss. I use my leg to push away Crocodile's hook and a small burst of Haki, very small to avoid detection (wouldn't want to spoil the surprise) but large enough to show him that if he tries again I will not hesitate to incapacitate him. He yells about our agreement, I smirk "That agreement got you out of Impel Down but it said nothing about killing Whitebeard. And did you really think that I'd let you even try to kill him, even if you had the power too (which you don't) he is trying to free Ace too. And anyone trying to stop this execution is an ally in my books. And Ace likes him, Shanks too. So, pray tell, why would I let you even scratch him?"

That wiped the smirk off his face. God the perks of acting dumb, whenever you said anything remotely smart, people's jaws would hit the floor, it looked so funny, especially when those people say that they know you very well and you come out with a statement that makes so much sense that they do a double-take. I can't wait to try that with my nakama when I see them again. Back to the war (because it was a war.)

I sense could Whitebeard turning around and turn to face him. He asked me if the Straw hat that I wore came from Shanks and I told him that yes it was. He then asked me if I was here to save my brother. "No," I said rolling my eyes with my voice practically dripping with sarcasm "I'm just here to fix a leak in the main office of Marineford." I could hear a few snickers of the Commanders and Crocodile in the background but I ignored them, completely focussed on Whitebeard and his reaction.

He tells me that I'm throwing my life away and not to get in the way, I merely smirk and replied "We'll see and by the way the one who will be Pirate King is me and how could I get in your way if I rescue Ace first." I could practically hear the jaw drops and eyes popping out of peoples' skulls, marine and pirate alike, at this statement (yes it was a statement, I will rescue Ace and I will do it before Whitebeard.) I then told him of the coded message that we'd overheard on the stolen Marine ship and how Ace's execution had been moved up. He thanked me and I said "No problem, can't withhold information from my 'allies' in this rescue ace party." More jaw dropping and eye popping occurred, that was starting to get old.

Whitebeard smiled and told Marco, his first commander, what I had told him and not to let me die. Ha if they think I'll die here, that I'm that weak, then they're in for a surprise.

I stretch my arms and legs and launched myself off the deck. I landed lightly and strode towards the attacking marines. As I predicted they launched themselves at me, swinging their swords and fists in wide open moves. Gear Second had worn off by now so I could hatch my plan. I lifted my straw hat from where it rested on my head and let it hang around my neck, time to get serious. I let my Haki spread across the battlefield all the way up to the execution tower and let it 'explode' knocking all of the weaker marines out cold.

I could sense everyone looking at me but I tuned out their stares as I let out my sadistic side that had been imprisoned with my Haki and prepared myself for the bloodshed. I let a demonic grin spread across my usually boyish face, the gloves were off, they had brought this on themselves, for separating me from my nakama and for taking Ace, they were going Down.

I ran forward charging my legs with Haki to make them move faster so that I could run faster. The Whitebeard pirates were the first to gather their wits after my blatant display of Haki, figures since they're so strong they must have quite a few Haki users in their crew. (Speaking of crews, I needed to teach mine Haki, it was so goddamn useful.) The 'war lords' and admirals were quick to follow and charge at me. I could practically hear the hearts popping up in Hancock's eyes and cursed, after this she was going to be so insistent, it was going to be such a pain.

The so called 'war lords' were quick to charge at me but the Commanders were even quicker to engage them to allow me a clear passage to Ace. They must have been told to protect me, or they've realised that, as the underdog in this war, I'm their best chance of getting Ace out alive. I saw Kizaru (the devil-fruit-of-light-using-bastard) and saw Iva aiming at me. Iva's Death Wink blasted me out of the way of Kizaru's laser beam; I rolled with the impact and landed on my feet, still running towards that shitty execution platform. I remembered to call out thanks to Iva before he was attacked by shitty Kuma.

I then ran into Moria, what a pain. I threw out an arm to launch into Gear Second but Ace's cry of "STAY AWAY LUFFY!" made me stop. Oh that bastard. I'm going to throttle him when I get up there but for now I settled for scaring him shitless. I infused my voice with Haki and shouted **"I'm your little brother you prat! And before you spout off that 'pirate rules' spiel being your brother means that I'm fucking exempt from the rules and I'll rescue you if I want! So shut your mouth and let me deal with the shitty marines. And I am so going to kick your ass when I get you. And before you say that I haven't beaten you in any of our fights… that's ONLY because I don't use my Haki, with that I'm gonna make you piss blood for a month. So sit there and look kickable while I defeat these guys or I'll knock you out here and now ya fuckin' older brother!" **

By the end of my rant Ace was gaping at me, Granddad was looking goddamn proud and everyone else was looking at me with this look that said that they thought I was either a sadistic bastard or insane. I was probably both. Moria turned his attention to our fight which lasted about one second since I was now in a fouler mood than I had been 2 minutes ago. I threw out an arm and switched into Gear Second, I then threw back said arm and infused it with as much Haki as I could force into it, causing my arm to catch on fire. I whipped it forward shouting out "RED HAWK" as I did. It went shooting into Moria sending him flying straight into the execution platform. (Ace'll complain that I stole his move later but I came up with it before he ate the mera mera fruit so really he stole my move.)

Said platform didn't budge, but that was just as well, if it crumbled then Ace might have been crushed by the debris. I then had one of my ominous bad feelings; Sengoku was opening his mouth to yell something into the speaker he was holding. "What are you doing letting him beat you up," Well they weren't really letting me per say "He is a danger," Well no shit. "He was not only raised with Ace but he is the son of The Revolutionary Dragon." Shit. Well the cats out of the bag as they say. I wouldn't have been able to keep that a secret for the rest of my life, too many people knew, especially since Granddad knew and would probably let it slip anyway.

I could hear the mutterings and rolled my eyes at Hancock's blush. I ploughed onwards, another reason for Marco to 'not let me die' if I did Dad would be pissed, and took down the giants using Gear Third. The execution tower was barely 100m away from me but blocking my way was Smokey and behind him the admirals. Dealing with Smokey was easy, a Haki infused Jet Gatling was all it took. But the admirals would be trickier.

I saw three Commanders and Hancock speeding towards me out of the corner of my eye. I ran forward, towards the admirals, dodging at the last second so that Marco and the two other Commanders could take the admirals and Hancock could slip me the key to Ace's cuffs as I sped past her, well the woman's sly I'll give her that.

Granddad was standing in front of me, he clearly didn't want to fight me as I drew nearer but he had no choice otherwise the marines would punish him. I sighed, shitty marines (God Sanji was starting to influence me what will all the shitty this and shitty that.) Anyway time to pull out the big guns, I hadn't wanted to use this since it was guaranteed to give anyone a one way trip to either hell or intensive care. But if I just grazed Granddad with it he would probably be fine.

This move combined Haki and Gear Third and was pretty damn strong. "Gomu Gomu no Elephant Gun!" My massive, Haki hardened fist just grazed Granddad's side but that was enough to send him flying into a building and dropping unconscious, though he wasn't coughing up blood so that was good. Unfortunately I shrunk as the air was forced out of my arm but it shot me towards the execution platform anyway. So not wantind to wastea any time I used a move that I'd copied from CP9 "Moon Walk" I shot into the air, kicking and jetting upwards to land lightly on the platform in front of my brother.

I stared at his shocked face for a second before moving behind him to remove his cuffs. God I wanted to hug him but now was so not the time and anyway I am not letting him out of my sight for at least a year after this, so plenty of time for hugging later, I had to free Ace now. The cuffs clicked as I turned the key and slid off as they came undone. Well at least Kizaru hadn't laser beamed the key in half like I'd thought he might, then I would've had to use Plan B which was so crazy that I didn't want to think about it, one thing's for certain it involved Haki, running and lots of den den mushis.

The bastard (I should stop referring to everyone as the bastard, it'll get confusing) Akainu decided to blow up the platform, effectively cutting off my train of thought. I left the magma to Ace; it was more his style and he would feel even weaker if he didn't do something to save his little brother seeing as his little brother just saved him. Ace decided to go all out and make a fire tunnel through the magma, dragging me with him, well talk about making a statement, a little overkill but I didn't care. I had got my brother back. Ha take that Whitebeard.

The 'allies' could see me and Ace land at the bottom of the platform and let out a cheer. I grimaced; the time to celebrate would be later when we were all on the Moby Dick far away from here, now is the time to fight. I stood back to back with Ace and we started to tag tem them, hitting the marines left and right. I almost felt at home, fighting with Ace was so nostalgic. But I could see the weaker marines were starting to recover and regain consciousness, this battle was going on for too long. I frowned slightly and thought for a second, if I used That I could get me and Ace to the Moby Dick and standing next to Whitebeard in an instant and from there we could get out of Marineford, but was I strong enough at this point to do it. Ah well to hell with this 'am I strong enough' crap, if it didn't work we would still be closer to Whitebeard than we were now.

I grabbed Ace around the waist and grunted out a quick "Hold on tight" before sending all my Haki to my legs and Shifting. I call it Shifting because I'm basically moving my body at super fast speeds whilst using my Haki to propel myself forward and to avoid obstacles. I was the only one who could do it because moving your body at this speed caused your blood to pump so fast round the body that all your arteries and veins explode because of the pressure but with my rubber body I could do it. It was a little like Gear Second in that sense but Shifting allowed me to move 100 times faster that I could in Gear Second. I could even move fast enough to make a sonic boom. But I was tired and carrying Ace so I had to settle for just under the speed of sound, which still got me to Whitebeard's side in an instant but it didn't make the cool sonic boom.

When I reached the deck on the Moby Dick I was panting heavily, I all but dropped Ace in front of Whitebeard who looked liked he really wanted to know what I just did, but knew the importance of getting out of here now that Ace was onboard. He called to his crew and to Buggy, Iva, Jimbe, Crocodile, Hancock and the many pirates that had come with me from Impel Down to retreat to the Moby Dick. The Marines hadn't yet realised that Ace was onboard and thought that Whitebeard was leaving Ace here. It wasn't until Hancock, the last to reach the ship, had come onboard that they finally realised that Ace wasn't anywhere on the battlefield. Their yells wandered to where the Moby Dick was sinking into the sea and to Ace who was smugly standing next to Marco and Whitebeard, their frustrated cries were music to my ears. All too soon the Moby Dick had slipped under the water and we were away.

Cheers filled the deck as we sailed away. Ace was here. Ace was alive. He was currently being hugged by the crew as they celebrated. I was forgotten for the moment as the pirates celebrated their escape, but that was okay. I felt unimaginable pain in my body as what I had done caught up to me. I had known that using Haki to that extent whilst in that condition would come back to bite me in the ass but at the time I didn't care. If I was sent back in time with the same decision to make I would still use my Haki, I had saved my brother and at the moment that was all that mattered. I had a smile on my face as I crumpled forward and I still smiled as I heard the panic stricken voices of Ace, Jimbe, Iva, Hancock, Marco, Buggy (though he won't even admit it) and the crew calling out my name. I smiled as a strong arm caught me before I hit the ground and lifted me to lean against a broad chest and I smiled as the last thing I saw before I passed out was my big brother's panicked face.

Ace's POV

I couldn't believe it I was free, I had been rescued from my execution. And by my little brother no less, though I'm surprised that Luffy can use Haki to that extent, and he totally copied my move. But right now I couldn't care less; I'm on the Moby Dick and far away from Marineford and currently being hugged to death by my crew. I was so caught up that I almost didn't notice the smile Luffy gave me before he pitched forward. ALMOST being the key word here, I pulled myself free of the arms around me and shouted "LUFFY!" Which brought the whole crew's attention to Luffy, I didn't notice the others moving around me, I was intent on reaching my little brother before he hit the deck. I got there in time and caught him around the chest with one arm before I moved that same arm to support his shoulders as I put an arm under his legs and lifted him gently to rest against my chest. I heard the thunder of more than one pair of running feet and was relieved when I saw the nurses running towards us along with Hancock. Someone saint the woman for her quick thinking. I let the nurses lead me and Luffy to their rooms in an insane sprint, and hurriedly lay Lu on the table before the nurses shooed me out of the room.

The atmosphere back on deck was now morbid, the crew all realised that in saving me Lu could die right now. I sat down next to the door to the nurses' room and was soon joined by Hancock, Iva, Jimbe and Marco. I turned my eyes to the floor to begin my long wait for the nurses to tell me whether my little brother was going to make it or not.

Luffy's POV 

I was warm; whatever I was lying on was really warm. I wanted to get up and see if Ace was okay but seeing as moving hurt like hell and I was practically cocooned in bandages I guess I'm stuck here. I blearily opened my eyes as I heard a muffled giggle and realised why I was so warm, Ace was sleeping on me. He had his arms wrapped around my chest and waist with my head on his chest and his head on top of mine. I sighed and snuggled closer to him. I could see a nurse and Marco standing in the doorway to the room, they must be the source of the giggle although Marco giggling would be a funny sight to see. I still felt tired, and by tired I mean I-am-about-to-drop-where-I-stand tired, so I let myself drift off again, Ace was here, he was fine, we were both fine.

When I next woke up Ace wasn't there and I didn't hurt so much, I could move so that was a plus and I didn't have as many bandages on as I did last time. On the downside I was starving and if I didn't get meat soon the crew would be forfeited, I figured 3 or 4 would just about do it. While I was trying to curb some of my more homicidal tendencies a delicious smell wafted into the room, someone was obviously cooking something and I really wanted that something. I stretched slightly on the bed and cautiously stood up, so far so good I was standing and I didn't hurt at all. I carefully put one foot in front of the other and took a few shaky steps; well I could walk but no running for me any time in the future.

I shakily walked out of the room and glanced along the hallway to see the empty deck, I let my Haki flow a little bit and winced as my head throbbed in protest, but thanks to my brief use of Haki I now knew where Ace, and the rest of the crew, was, _to the kitchen/dining room_ I thought. I must have been more injured than I thought; either that or I had slept for a month, because by the time I got to the kitchen-dining-hall-thing I was starving. I was starting to consider cannibalism when the whole room went silent. Wow, I was noticed well…3…2…1…"LUFFY!" _Cue Ace._

"Lu!"

_Shit. He only uses that name when I'm in trouble or…_I was knocked off my feet, literally, when the great lump tackled me in a bear hug, we landed in a pile on the floor and I inwardly groaned. _Great, now he probably won't let go of me for the rest of the day~._

"Oi Lu should you really be up and moving so soon." Great now worry about my condition, after the bear-hug-tackle thing.

"I'm hungry. Want food. May resort to cannibalism." Ace laughed but he could tell that I Really wanted food. Now. Scooping me up he half carried half dragged me to the nearest table and I was unceremoniously dumped on the bench while he went off to get enough food to feed a small army, or just me and him. I noticed that Iva, Buggy, Crocodile and Hancock were gone but Jimbe was still here and he made his way over to me and sat down on my right. Around the same time I also noticed that most of the crew were trying to make their way over to the table and I quickly motioned them over, if only to stop their poor attempts at espionage.

They quickly pulled up chairs and settled around the rather small 5 seated circular table. Surprisingly they didn't all start talking at once and I realised that they were waiting for something, or someone, most likely Ace, he wouldn't like it if his crew started to harass his little brother, especially if he wasn't around to hear the answers. Thankfully Ace returned quickly before the impatient pirates (seriously patient pirate must be an oxymoron or something!) stared me to death. He placed the pile of food in front of me, motioning for me to start eating and then started to stare like the rest if the Whitebeard pirates, seriously they are starting to get on my nerves. I sighed "Okay Ace say what you want to say and stop staring at me like I'm the most interesting thing since grilled meat."

"Lu," he asked a little uncertainly, "when did you learn to use Haki?"

"Both before I met you and after you left." I replied and started to wolf down the meat like a starved man, which at this stage I was. Unfortunately my peace was short lived Ace's opening question seemed to have released the floodgates and now I couldn't even hear myself think over all the questions. I was just about to shout at them all with a Haki infused voice when Marco came to the rescue; whether it was my rescue or the crew's I will never know.

"Shut it!" _Thank you Marco, I would say this out loud but I am too busy devouring the table._ "Let the kid finish his meal and then you can grill him." _I hate you now Marco._

I carried on devouring the meat and gave Ace The Look _(yes this deserves to be capitalized, it's The Look that says Eat-Now-Or-Forever-Regret-The-Meat.)_ Ace got it and soon joined me in my meat devouring spree. We both grinned at each other before simultaneously passing out on our (clean) plates.

I was rocking slightly when I next woke up _(no shit you're on a boat in the sea) _but wherever I was rocked a hell of a lot more than the ship. I looked up to see my brother's face, he smiled softly at me "You scared me back there Lu." I knew what he was talking about, Marineford. "I know," I said softly "but you're my brother and I couldn't let you die. Not after-" My voice caught in my throat, _Sabo._ He nodded before turning sharply and kicking open his door, _couldn't be helped, he was carrying me, no free hands. _He walked into his room, it felt so Ace and I felt so at home in here. The whole room felt warm and nostalgic that I was lost for a second and didn't realise that he had already placed me on the bed and was turning to leave. "Stay." He turned at my whispered words, "Please." He paused for a second and seemed to realise that we both needed this, to know the other was there. He didn't answer but instead he removed his shorts and hat and in turn helped me to remove my hat, vest and shorts before lying down next to me and wrapping us both in the sheets, pulling me close. I, in turn, snuggled close to him and breathed out deeply.

If I was paying any attention at that time, I would have noticed Marco and Jimbe peeking through the door before smiling and closing it quietly behind them. I would also have heard the faint squeals as Marco told the crew where we were. But I was too happy snuggled up with my brother. _Whoever discovered Haki Arigato, Arigato, Arigato. Because it helped me save my brother._


	2. Ittai nani ga

**A/N: Hiya~~:P This is the sequel to Arigato. I wrote this for my first and second reviewers YingYang21 and angelrider13 . Hope you enjoy.**

**Big thank you's to all whom favourite my story, especially the first 10 since they are the first ever! So thanks:**

**HellMourne**

**Jasmine Marie Vladimir**

**Magic Detective**

**RoXaS707**

**angelrider13**

**fantoshiro**

**one piece girl 99999**

** . .Xx**

**xXChild-Of-DemonXx**

**Summary: Luffy stayed with the Whitebeard pirates and Ace for two years and now he's going back to Shabondy to meet up with his faithful crew. **

**ITTAI NANI GA?!**

A young man was standing in a small ship a good kilometre away from the bubble creating island known as Shabondy Archipelago, the small ship wasn't even in a small ship it was more if a boat than anything else, he was bidding farewell to the crew that had become his family in the short time that he had been with them. "Bye." They called out, "Don't let yourself be noticed, keep your hood up at all times." The dark haired man merely smirked at them and bid his farewells to them, "Goodbye, I hope to see you soon." He cried as the massive ship in front of him sunk into the seas, carrying his family with it.

The young man turned away from the bubbles that were the last traces that his family had been there at all and sat down in the bottom of the boat to start rowing, he sighed as he looked at the vast expanse of sea that separated his boat from the shore (his family couldn't exactly sail up to Shabondy, or any island not in their territory, without being attacked by the Marines or other pirates) , this was going to take a while he thought, _wait for me my nakama, the captain's coming back._

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Meanwhile in a bar in grove 41, 8 pirates sit and wait for their captain. "It's hard to believe that he did all that two years ago." An orangette said with a slightly disbelieving tone. The long-nosed one nodded "Yeah, being unbelievable must be a family trait or something." The blond one and the green haired one laughed at the same time before scowling at each other. "Yeah that 'D' has to stand for 'Danger to those who fuck with my family'." The smallest one said. "Our captain is SUPER~!" The bluenette said. The black haired female nodded and replied "Yes, he went in like a man possessed." The tall one with the afro pulled out a violin and half sang half spoke "But now our captain is coming back~, we shall see him soon~. Can I see your panties~?" "IE! BAKA! I NEVER LET YOU SEE THEN TWO YEARS AGO?! WHY WOULD I NOW?! DIE!" The six remaining pirates winced as they heard a crunch as the orangette's foot collided with the skeleton's head. The green haired one sighed "Oi oi, when is Luffy going to get here?"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

LUFFY POV

I stretched as I stood up in the uncomfortable row boat and sighed for what felt like the billionth time as I clambered out of the boat, the island had been further away than I had thought, and I had underestimated its sheer size and had rowed further than I thought I had to because of it. Yeah a kilometre I could handle, hell 5 kilometres I could handle but no it had been 10 kilometres, I hadn't even known that you could spot an island from that far away, to make it all worse the sea started to act up when I was 7 kilometres away and from that moment onward steering had been a nightmare not to mention the waves that sucked out my strength every time I was splashed by them. Mini-rant over, I really need my crew and a good drink; it's one of those days where you just want _one_ good drink.

I launched myself up onto the grassy hill in front of me and pointedly stared at the number on the nearest tree, 71. Shit, I was right on the other side of the island compared to where we had 'parked' the Sunny. Then I remembered just _where_ the navy headquarters were, grove 65. (*)

_Too_ close. _Way_ too close. Oh the Whitebeard pirates would wish for death when I was done with them, I'm gonna spank their arses, this was the old-man's doing (Whitebeard) he's probably having a right old laugh back on the Moby Dick right now. Screw you old geezer. I huffed and turned away from the tree that said 69 and walked towards the one that had a nice 27 on it, _seriously who designed the layout of this place? Why was the 20s section right next to the 70s?_ I thought. My other, more important thoughts were _don't go towards the marine base, DO NOT go TOWARDS the MARINE BASE, _so I was caught completely off guard when someone said "Oi its Mugiwara no Luffy-" _Shit. Had they noticed me already, but I'm wearing a hooded coat with the hood covering my face. HOW did they notice?!_

My panic attack was abruptly ended when I heard the next part of that phrase "-'s bounty poster." _Oh you have to be shitting me. _But no, there in broad daylight was a man gawping over my new bounty poster. Wait…new? They hadn't put it up again, had they? Cautiously I edged towards the man and poster so that I could see it and carefully read the contents 'Mugiwara no Luffy. Dead or Alive. 500 million reward.' Ooh it had gone up by another 2 hundred million. Yes that _was_ 2 years ago but training with the old geezer and Rayleigh was _hard_ and I hadn't seen a single wanted poster in 2 years. Anyway I was very pleased with my new bounty, I hadn't caught up with Ace but I was getting close, my bounty was almost as big as his, but I wasn't sure on how much lower mine was compared to his, Ace's bounty posters were hard to come by for some reason, but still. Ha! Take that! While I had been pondering my bounty I hadn't noticed where I was walking and had stupidly walked right into the heart of the Lawless section, where anything goes and where word spread faster that wildfire in bone dry grass; if I was spotted here, and my identity was realised, I would be fighting off the bounty hunters, pirates and marines before I could say meat. Well I just had to keep my head down and hood up and not pull an Ace, which, is to say, do something stupid. Yeah a couple of years back my nakama would have called it pulling a Luffy but I was never stupid, just someone trying to hide his intelligence through stupid looking moves. Well my nakama would be in for a surprise.

I heard a voice calling out to me "Hey, what _you_ doing here _weakling_?" Ha weakling, this guy was a punk who thought he was better than everyone else because he looked strong, hell even Camie could kick his ass if she put her mind to it. The punk looked me up and down as if trying to size up how much of a weakling I was. Ha if I was a weakling then he had the strength of a dust mite. The punk quickly took in my appearance, ankle length black and white spotted coat hiding my body and face.

Though he couldn't see it I was also wearing black shorts that were cut off above the knee and a dark blue short sleeved cardigan thing that hung loose around my arms and was open at the chest, proudly displaying the small tattoo on my left bicep that pronounced me as a friend of the Whitebeard pirates, it was a small, purple bone cross. On my back there was a tattoo and on my chest there was a scar, the tattoo was simple, a large pirate style warship with three masts and a different flag on each one of them, one was the symbol of the Mugiwara Pirates, my flag, the second was the original mark of the Spade pirates, Ace's flag and the third was two crossbones with a blue 'S' drawn over the top of it, the third was Sabo's flag.

The scar was from my first battle against the old geezer and Rayleigh, I had managed to avoid Rayleigh's sword but the old geezer had got me from the side with a devil fruit and Haki infused fist, I had been unconscious for a week, after that it got bloody and Ace tried to assassinate the old geezer (again), while Rayleigh had just sat there laughing and took a den den film for me of the whole incident, needless to say it was hilarious. Though I had to admit that the scar looked pretty damn cool, it was shaped like a big cross and was right over my heart.

My last noticeable change was the third tattoo on my right arm that said '3D' with a cross through it and then '2Y' underneath it. This was the last order to my crew before I started my training 2 years ago. '3D' was our old meeting time for this island; we were to meet at the Sunny 3 days after we left it in Grove 42. This was crossed out to show that that meeting time was no longer valid. The '2Y' meant 2 years; that we were to meet at this island and at the same spot in exactly 2 years.

Getting this message to my crew was no easy feat, to do so I had to get myself on the front of every newspaper in the Grandline because I didn't know where my crew were. To do this I went back to Marineford with Whitebeard, Rayleigh and Ace (yeah it was stupid taking Ace along but he wouldn't stay on the Moby Dick and we only had a small timeframe to work with) and I, flanked by the geezer, Rayleigh and Ace, sailed a complete circle round the island (whilst being fired at) and then I rang the 'Ox' bell 16 times and engaged in a 'silent prayer' with my hat over my chest. People could assume whatever they wanted about the whole message in my actions but really it was all a diversion so that I could get myself photographed by as many reporters as possible and get that message to my crew. 2 years gave them all time to train before we went to New World and I heard from Shanks that Mihawk was training Zoro personally so he was going to be a great swordsman when I finally saw him again.

Getting off track again. The punk was _still_ eying me, creep. They he seemed to see me in a new light, wait did he- "MUGI-!" I cut the punk off with a quick burst of Haki, _that_ was _too_ close. _Shitty punk. Shitty geezer. Shitty 'D' luck_. Sanji had _so_ rubbed off on me. I had no time to ponder the implications of that statement because the punk's cry had brought some more punks which I decided to call Lackey and Sidekick. "Boss!" They cried out, yup I chose perfect names alright.

"Oi what did ya do ta boss?!" Lackey shouted. I sighed, this was going to be such a handful and I was in a hurry. "Yeah," Sidekick added in "undo whatever ya did or we'll hav' to hurt ya!" My face remained neutral but internally I was sighing, _let's gets this over with._ I let loose a small burst of controlled Haki aimed directly at Lackey and Sidekick, not enough to harm but enough to knock out for a day or two. Lackey and Sidekick were down in seconds and I casually strolled past them and carried on walking to the other side of the Lawless zone.

Half an hour later and I was out of the Lawless zone and half way through the Amusement park when I spotted a familiar face, grinning I sauntered over to him and lifted my hood slightly so that he could see my face. "Miss me?" I asked and the Dark King only smiled and motioned for me to follow him, which I did without a moment of hesitation. "So Luffy," the Dark King said "What've you been doing in the 9 months I haven't seen you." I merely smirked and he gave me a knowing smile "Ah you won't tell me, you want it to be a surprise. For both me and your crew." The last part caught my attention and I switched my gaze from the road to his smiling eyes, "You know where they are." It wasn't a question but a statement, Rayleigh knew. "Yes, yes I do." My eyes bored into his and I said four words that only Rayleigh would understand the depth and meaning of, "Take me to them."

It turned out that I didn't have to go far to find my crew, or at least one of them. My whole look changed into one of happiness as I ran up to glomp my first mate. Zoro didn't look surprised in the least and casually grabbed my knees to settle my weight more comfortably on his back. I looked him over, apart from the small scar under his eye, which looked like it came too damn close to impairing his eyesight, Zoro was unharmed. He was also a lot more muscular and was wearing an emerald robe that went down to his ankles and that was open at the front showing the scar on his chest and tied to one arm was his green bandana. A red sash went around his waist and his three swords were tied to it. His nostalgic green waist band was present as always and he was also wearing ankle length green pants that were tucked in to dark green boots. All in all, the look was impressive and seemed to suit him.

Zoro gave me this look and he seemed to realise that I really didn't want to let go anytime soon so merely settled with shifting my body so that I was more comfortable and telling Rayleigh to start moving, which I interpreted as Zoro's way of asking Rayleigh to take us to the rest of the crew. A sudden thought hit me "Zoro?" He grunted, which I took as a yes, "Why aren't you with the rest of the crew?" Zoro hesitated slightly and replied "The damn crew got lost." I chuckled slightly; Zoro had gotten lost, probably while trying to find the bathroom or something like that, and was too proud to admit it.

Zoro, following Rayleigh, soon carried me to the Tourist Zone; I'd kept my hood up the whole time so that no one could see my face. I don't know when but somewhere along the way to Grove 41 I started to sense my nakama and was surprised to find out that they were all in one place. I started to wonder how surprised (and in some cases angry {Nami and Sanji}) they would be when I told them that I was just pretending to be an idiot and in reality I was quite smart. I also wondered whether they could top Ace's reaction when I told him what I had got up to in the last 3 years. It was a pretty cool reaction; if you call being overly dramatic and a little scary being cool.

_Flashback_

_I was sitting on the deck of the Moby Dick and it had been 2 days since I had woke up and I was already as good as new, well sorta. I was sitting happily on the figurehead and was watching the calm waves as I thought about what we were going to do in less than 2 days, we were going back to Marineford so that I could send a message to my crew. My thoughts were interrupted when a hand dragged me onto the deck, I was ready to start bitching at them with Haki infused profanities when I turned around and realised that it was, in fact, Ace that had dragged me from my special spot (yeah I had only been aboard for a few days and I was already calling it my special spot but no one else sat there so it was.)_

_I asked him what he wanted and he said "Lu tell me what you've been up to since I left the island." I gave him a long, hard look and glanced at the crew behind him who were already in story telling mode, I sighed "Are you sure you want to know everything?" He nodded and I sat down and patted the deck in front of me, motioning for him (and the rest of the crew) to sit down as well. I soon had a large crowd of pirates including the commanders and Whitebeard sitting around me. _

"_Well after you left the island…" I continued talking for around 2 hours, detailing my adventures in the East Blue before going on to those in the Grandline, I left nothing out, not even what I had felt at the time because, quite frankly, I wanted Ace to know. A few jaws dropped when I mentioned Crocodile, even more when I talked about Skypia and they how I fought Enel and how we got down from Skypia and landed in a Marine base in the process, then even more fell when I went on to detail my adventure at Enies Lobby and my fights with CP9, around half hit the deck when I detailed my fight with the zombies, Moria and Oars, a couple of eyes watered when I told them how I had lost my crew in the fight with Kuma. Lots of jealous looks from the men were aimed at me when I told them where I had ended up after the fight with Kuma, more jealous looks and a couple of nosebleeds were present when I told them how I had seen Hancock naked and then even more when I told them how I had seen her naked again after my fight with Sandersonia and Marigold. Then more awed looks were directed at me when I told them exactly what had happened at Impel Down._

_Ace stopped me to question a few details every now and then. Like… "Were you really nearly executed at Log Town and then saved by a mysterious bolt of lightning?" and "You used your own blood to coat your fists so that you could defeat Crocodile, did you even worry about blood loss?" also "You defeated Enel by hitting him with a ball of GOLD that had been melted to your arm?!" and a little incredulously "You carried two of your crew up a mountain using only your bare fingers?!" And… "You forced 100 shadows into your body and didn't worry about the consequences?! You declared war on the government?!" Then… "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU WOULD HAVE DONE IT ANYWAY?!" On and on until finally he exploded when I told him about Impel Down…_

"_**YOU BROKE INTO IMPEL DOWN! THEN YOU GET POISONED AND THE CURED BY IVA, A REVOLUTIONARY! THEN YOU TELL HIM WHO YOUR DAD IS, DESPITE THE FACT THAT IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE A SECRET! THEN YOU RUN OFF TO GET ME, DESPITE THE FACT THAT LESS THAN A FEW HOURS AGO YOU WERE DYING FROM MAGDELLAN'S POISON! YOU FIND ME GONE AND THEN INSTEAD OF LEAVING LIKE A NORMAL PERSON YOU BREAK OUT OVER 200 HUNDRED PIRATES, MAKE A DEAL WITH CROCODILE AND THEN LEAVE! IN THE FLASHIEST WAY POSSIBLE! THEN YOU FORGO SLEEP AND RACE TO MARINEFORD WHERE YOU PUSH YOURSELF TO THE LIMITS USING THE MOST ENERGY CONSUMING MOVES POSSIBLE! YOU RESCUE ME THEN USE A TECHNIQUE WHICH YOU DAMN WELL KNOW COULD HAVE KILLED YOU?! I DON'T KNOW WHETHER TO THANK EVERY DEITY OUT THERE THAT YOU'RE STILL ALIVE OR TO HIT YOU?!" **_

_During his rant Ace had burst into flames causing everyone within 20 meters to run for cover, I meanwhile had stood barely a meter away from him and waited for my brother to finish. Ace hadn't even realise that he was infusing his voice with Haki and subsequently a few people were coming close to shitting themselves. When Ace had finished he had stared at me for a few seconds before crushing me in a huge hug before lifting me off my feet and dragging me back to the figure head. Where, upon reaching the figure head, he lay down on his back, cuddling me to his chest and muttering under his breath. I catch a few words like "reckless", "almost gave me a heart attack" and "stupid little brother." I didn't really mind and Ace's reaction was to be expected, I also knew for a fact that most high ranking pirates and Marines actually called me insanity incarnate (I had heard this fact from Whitebeard and Gramps.) My nakama were used to my insane antics but Ace wasn't, even though he had grown up with me. _

_Ace pulled my hat off my head, letting it hang round my neck before placing a kiss on my head and telling me to warn him before doing something crazy like that again. I tell him that he's one to talk and that if I constantly warned him every time I did something crazy he would get at least 10 messages a day. Ace laughed but pulled me closer and whispered "I'm serious, please don't scare me like that again Lu." I nod into his chest and settle down in his arms because if I know Ace, he wouldn't be letting go of me anytime soon._

_End of Flashback_

I had been right back then, Ace hadn't let go of me for the rest of the day and then he wouldn't let me go anywhere without him for a week, then a month later and he still hadn't stopped watching my every move in case, in the few seconds he took his eyes off me, I got attacked or something. It had been nice because we hadn't really had time for brotherly bonding in the three years we had been separated (hell I'd only met him twice, the first time he was chasing a murderer and the second was at his execution) and the few days Ace had stayed with us (my crew and I) hadn't been enough for me.

My flashback session was brought abruptly to a halt when Rayleigh said "We're here." I clung to Zoro as we walked inside the bar and came face to face with my nakama **(1).** "Hey," Zoro smirked "Look what I found." Chopper seemed interested and said "What? What?" Zoro smirked again and let go of my knees only to stretch his arms backwards and grab my arms lifting me over his head before depositing me on the ground in front of him. "Zoro, who is that?" Nami asked whilst the crew were wearing similar looks of confusion except for Chopper and Robin. Chopper because he could recognise my scent and Robin because she knew that Zoro would only ever treat me like this.

Zoro smirks and lifts off my hood and cloak as I say "Hey, how have you been?" I don't know whether it was from my articulated language that actually made sense or the fact that I was here in front of them but jaws dropped. A loud cry of "LUFFY!" echoed around the room and I grinned and let out a small laugh as they all started to shout at me simultaneously. Finally Zoro brought some semblance of calm to the room by loudly declaring that they could question me later and that we should get to the ship now, before the Marines showed up. I smiled at my first mate before adding in my 2 beli "Yeah getting out of here before the Marines arrive will be paramount in our journey to Fishman Island, that and making sure that the coating is sufficient."Oh I was laying it on thick but I had wanted to do this for 2 years now and my fun was only just starting.

Jaws hit the deck, _literally. _My whole crew including Robin and Zoro were staring at me whilst moving their mouths like fish in a hilarious attempt to formulate words. I started to snigger which soon turned into giggling and chuckling which morphed into outright guffawing, meanwhile Zoro who was the first to recover took one glance at Sanji's outright disbelieving and you-are-shitting-me face and joined me on the floor rolling around in my laughter. Robin, Franky and Brook soon joined in on the laugh fest and Usopp and Chopper were next but Sanji and Nami were having a hard time grasping the fact that my idiocy was an act, a good act, but an act in the end.

Meanwhile I could sense an Admiral heading our way and practically screamed orders at the crew to a) get to the Sunny, b) check the coating and supplies c) set sail and d) pick their jaws up off the floor and get damn well moving! We all but sprinted to the Sunny and were soon sinking into the depths and moving down towards Fishman Island. Now that we were on the Sunny Nami and Sanji had some questions. "Have you always been this smart?" Sanji asked me as he took out a smoke and lit it. I shrugged "Yeah pretty much." A vein pulsed in Nami's forehead "Then why did you act so STUPID?!"

"Because it was a good long term battle strategy." I replied. Nami cocked her head to the side along with Sanji, Usopp, Brook, Franky and Chopper. "Battle Strategy?" They echoed. "Yup. A battle strategy. It works like this; people won't anticipate well thought out plans and moves from someone who they think is dumb, there for if I act dumb, people will underestimate my planning and strategy capabilities and try to outsmart me. However since I anticipated this I can beat them down whilst carefully picking apart their plans. And the best part is that even the person that was defeated by me will think that I did it through brute force. Just put it this way, isn't it a bit unbelievable when we win almost every time despite the fact that there are always so many carefully laid out plans in our way?" I smiled at the end of the explanation and looked at my crew again, they were all staring at me slack jawed (although Robin and Zoro not so much) and Nami seemed to be mumbling to herself with a look of absolute horror on her face.

"So Luffy…" Zoro's input seemed to shock everyone out of their thoughts, even Nami was listening. "Yes Zoro?" I replied and casually waited for the next part of his question, Zoro cocked his head slightly and said "… What did you do in those 2 years while we were apart?" I smiled and said "Trained with Whitebeard and Rayleigh, had a good time with the animals on Amazon Lilly and messed around with my brothers." They all seemed to accept, except Sanji who had started to burn when I had mentioned Amazon Lilly and then he had started to cry (weird), that is, until Usopp, always one to point out the obvious, quipped "_Brothers_? I thought Ace was your only brother, how many do you have?"

"Just the two, Ace and Sabo. Ace and I thought that Sabo was dead but he wasn't and we reunited right after the second trip to Marineford." Everyone seemed to frown slightly at this, even Zoro, "Wait a second," Chopper, Usopp and Franky said in sync (which was pretty creepy) "You thought he was dead?"

"Well around 12 years ago a boat that Sabo was in was fired on by a ship sailed by the Tenryubito and we thought he had died, but he didn't." I grinned happily while Sanji and Zoro cursed the so called 'Celestial Dragons' under their breath, I didn't realise that Zoro and Sanji knew that many swear words. I certainly did, I grew up with bandits after all, but they really did have very colourful and creative language, I was so stealing some of these, they were great. Getting off topic again, I told myself.

"So…you reunited?" Brook prompted.

"Yeah, well I was kinda out of it so I got the full story later from Sabo and Ace."

"Out of it? Why Luffy-bro?"

"Well…"

_Flashback_

_I was tired, no screw that I was exhausted, I was ready to drop right now and sleep for a month, but I had a job to do, I had to finish this 'silent prayer' and walk out of Marineford before sailing away on the commandeered marine warship and then dumping the warship and getting back on the Moby Dick. After that I had to go through the whole 'debriefing' shit that the Whitebeard pirates seemed to have going on and only then, after 2 hours of 'mission overview', could I have my bloody nap. I hid my grimace behind my hat as I lifted it up onto my head before turning on my heel and striding towards Ace who was waiting on the deck of our stolen warship. _

_None of us spoke whilst the warship sailed away and we didn't speak for the 45 minutes that it took us to reach the rendezvous point with the Moby Dick. We only spoke once we were sailing away from the abandoned marine vessel that we had left moored near a small desert island. Once we were a good distance away we allowed our euphoria to show and relieved and smug smiles crept onto our faces. I cracked my neck before slinking off to the figure head where I had found a nice, shady yet warm spot that was located just behind and to the side of the whale's left eye. My spot was big enough for me to lie there comfortably and had extra space for another couple of people. _

_I was already half asleep when a dinghy pulled alongside the Moby Dick and was dozing off when a pair of boots hit the deck and so was blissfully unaware of the commotion that was happening on the deck. _

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"Well what happened?" Nami demanded.

"Finish the story. Finish the story." Chopper and Usopp chanted.

"Okay but from here on out I'm basically talking from third person 'cause I was really out of it when this happened. So don't be surprised when I say 'Luffy was' or anything, you've got to remember I was unaware for most of this." My nakama nodded and I continued…

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_A blond haired man leapt on to the deck and peered round looking for the people that he had come here to see. He spotted Ace in a fighting position in front of him but where was Luffy? _

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"It is so weird to hear you talking about yourself in third person."

"Shut up Zoro and let me finish, Captain's orders."

"…Hai sencho."

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"_Oi where's Luffy?" The blond man asked._

"_As if I'd tell you." Ace snapped back._

"_Aww don't you recognise me Ace? Three words. Sakazuki, brothers forever."_

_Ace froze and paled before taking a tentative step forward "S-Sabo?"_

_Sabo nodded and smiled "It took me ten years but I finally made it back to you guys." He smiled a smile which wasn't knocked off his face when Ace punched him in the jaw. "You idiot!" Ace yelled "Do you have any idea how much your death hurt us. Luffy cried for a week and wouldn't eat properly! Do you have any idea how much we missed you?!" Ace practically strangled Sabo with a desperate hug but Sabo merely patted his shoulder, gently wrapping an arm round Ace's back while slowly rocking his, now trembling, brother._

_Meanwhile the crew were perplexed, this man in a long blue coat wearing a top hat with blue goggles strapped to it had just leapt aboard via a dinghy that had pulled up alongside their ship and had made their second division commander break down with three words. Just what the hell was going on? Why did this man seem to know Strawhat and Ace and why was Ace so happy to see him?_

_Back to Ace and Sabo…Ace was finally coherent enough to bombard Sabo with questions "Where were you? How did you survive? Why has it taken so long for you to get back?" etcetera. Sabo replied with "Okay okay I'll tell you when I see Luffy. Where is Luffy anyway?"Ace looked confused "Luffy? He's right ther-!" Before his eyes widened when he found that Luffy was not with the rest of the crew. "Aaaaaah! I lost Luffy! Where is he?! Where?! Where?!" Sabo watched his brother running round like an idiot and searching in places where Luffy could __**not**__ be, Luffy was rubber but there were some things that were impossible, hiding __**under**__ a barrel was one of them. _

_Sabo took a moment to search the deck and quickly spotted a sliver of a straw hat in a small nook near the figure head. "Ace! I found Lu!" These words quickly brought Ace to heel, much to the amusement of the crew, "Where!" He all but demanded. Sabo pointed out the straw hat and had to suppress a yelp when Ace decided to latch onto his arm and run full pelt to the straw hat. _

_What they found when they got there was actually weird, very cute, but weird. Luffy was sleeping, now that wasn't weird by itself, but he was sleeping __**peacefully **__with a __**calm **__expression on his face and he __**wasn't even snoring**__. Sabo and Ace took a moment to ingrain this picture into their minds before they checked on Luffy's health, it was unnatural for him to be this quiet. Sabo checked his pulse while Ace checked his temperature._

"_His pulse is good."_

"_So's his temp."_

"_So…"_

"_Why's he so quiet?"_

_At this point Luffy blearily cracked an eye open "Ashe? Wad' da ya wan'?" Luffy tried to sit up, sleepy eyes widening at the sight of just __**who **__was with Ace, but began swaying alarmingly but before Ace could steady him Sabo had already gathered his little brother into his arms, rocking him from side to side, and Luffy in turn snuggled into Sabo's chest, Sabo soothed Luffy's incoherent mumbling but one thing made him pause._

"_Knew you were alive." _

_Ace gently linked his hands with Luffy's and asked "How? And why didn't you tell anyone?"_

"_No….body…no signs that anything had eaten it…just a theory…didn't wanna give you false hope…" Luffy's 'explanation' deteriorated back into incoherent mumbling and both older brothers sighed, they would get no further answers until Luffy was awake enough to form a sentence, which didn't look like it would be happening anytime soon. Ace turned to Sabo, letting go of Luffy's hands, "Let's get him to bed." Sabo only nodded and hugged Luffy to his chest as he rose in one fluid move and let Ace lead them to his room. _

_The rest of the crew were very puzzled when the stranger and Ace suddenly sprinted to the other end of the deck, they were even more puzzled when they came back with Strawhat in the stranger's arms. Now they __**had**__ to know who the stranger was, Ace barely trusted his little brother with anyone, so far only his little brother's crew, Pops, Jimbe, Shanks and Hancock (and only if she didn't try to get Strawhat to marry her) were trusted with him. So what did this stranger mean to the brothers that Ace let him carry his little brother without a hint of fear or suspicion? _

_Ace and Sabo walked past the crew and headed straight for Ace's room a few wrong turns and some cursing and shushing later and they arrived at Ace's room. It was of a decent size and there was a picture of Luffy on the wall along with various wanted posters that depicted Ace, Luffy and various members of the Whitebeard pirates as well as a the eight other members of Luffy's crew. There was an awkward silence for a few moments that was quickly broken by Luffy launching into incoherent mumblings with a repeating pattern of big brothers. Ace and Sabo smiled before glancing at the bed "Will that hold 3?" Sabo asked. "Yeah, we haven't done this in years." Ace replied before dragging Luffy and Sabo over to the bed and pushing Sabo down so that he was lying on his side with Luffy snuggled to his chest. Ace lay down beside them and wrapped an arm around Luffy before linking hands with Sabo. They smiled at their little brother before Ace flicked off the lamp and plunged them into darkness…_

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"Awwwww~" Nami squealed. "That was so cute~! Your brothers love you so much~!"

I went bright red and muttered "Yeah, I love 'em too." while Zoro and Usopp smirked at me.

"Luffy-bro's anikis are SUPER!" Franky cried out.

"Yeah Luffy you brothers are so nice! I wonder what it's like to have a big brother." Chopper giggled.

"Captain-san what did you do next?" Robin asked.

"Well me, Sabo and Ace caught up and they learned about my 'theory…'"

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_I woke to the sound of laughter and the feeling of an arm around my waist and a hand carding through my hair. I tried to focus on where the laughing was coming from and what had caused it…_

"_An-ha-d then he ahaha- he said to the bar man 'What's wrong' as if nothing had happened!"_

_The laughing grew louder again and I realised that I must have been dragged from sleep mid-way through a joke or something, because none of that made any sense in my sleep addled mind. Of course I chose the best option for the situation; I groaned, rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. __**Tried**__ being the most appropriate word, because as soon as I groaned the laughter stopped and when I rolled over to try and sleep I was deafened by a shriek, a very high pitched, shrill shriek, of "LUFFY!" _

_Shit, I'd know that voice anywhere, Hancock was visiting. _

_Why me? I cried to the heavens, trying and failing to hide underneath the bed covers, as the She-Devil herself approached with love hearts in her eyes and clawed hands ready to sink into her prey. _

_After being suffocated by Hancock and then rescued by Ace and Marco I was able to breathe and look around, we were in Ace's room, Hancock had just left, having been half carried half dragged out by Marco, Ace and Sabo were lounging on either side of me on the bed._

_I raised an eyebrow at the sight of Sabo's, fairly recent by the look of it, black eye. No how had __**that**__ happened, I wondered. Wonder that was soon satisfied when Ace glanced at the black eye with a guilty look of his face. Ah, I thought, Ace had happened and it had resulted in __**that**__._

_I sighed, Ace was a hot head, in more ways than one, and even so, I wondered why Ace had decided to punch Sabo in the face. No matter, I thought as I snuggled into Sabo's warm coat, getting myself comfortable for the grilling that I know is just around the corner. _

"_So Luffy, what's this theory about my death?" Sabo asked bluntly._

_I winced at Ace's piercing look and Sabo's indifference to his 'death.' _

"_The theory about your death wasn't really how you had died, we knew that, but rather how you hadn't died…" I said, still wary of Ace's piercing look, but Sabo was grinning from ear to ear now._

"_Well, something about your 'death' just seemed __**off. **__For a start there was no body, and yes there was a chance that it was eaten but if that had been the case then the area would have become a haven for fishing boats because of the abundance of fish. But there was no increase of the amount of fish in the area and the only sea king around here has its territory on the other side of the island and there would have been some sort of warning of another sea king in the area but there wasn't, so if you had died then where did the body go?_

_If the body had washed ashore, either on Fuusha or another island then the people would have sent out a message for relatives to come and identify the body. But, as far as we knew, that wasn't the case, we would have heard if a body had been washed up on shore on Fuusha and there would have been a small letter going round if the body had been washed up elsewhere. Just to be sure, after you left, Ace, I sent a letter by sea gull to all the islands in East Blue and not one of them reported finding a body on the shore, matching your description and blood type Sabo, in their histories. _

_There for the only option left was that you, Sabo, had either been found or buried by a passing by stranger or, the more likely option, you were hurt and someone found you but by the time you were healed you were too far away, plus the fact that you are practically directionless," like Zoro, but his case is worse, he could get lost in a four walled room with no doors, "and you had to catch us up when you knew where we were."_

_I huffed as I finished my long winded explanation and glanced back at Sabo and Ace. Sabo had a proud look on his face that clearly said 'Smart.' And Ace looked slightly betrayed and I knew why… "Ace I couldn't tell you…I didn't want to give you false hope. That would have crushed you if I had been wrong." Ace looked a bit peeved at that but I knew that he understood._

"_So," I said in a bright tone "what happened that day Sabo?"_

_Sabo smirked and replied "Your dad."_

"_Tou-san?"_

"_Yep he found me washed up on the shore and treated me. But he also brought me to the Grand Line and to the revolutionaries. I stayed with them but I was never one of them and I left when I first heard about Ace's execution and made my way through the New World and Grand Line to Marineford, but I was late and ended up meeting you here."_

"Huh so Lu's dad saved you?" Ace asked.

"_Yup. But after leaving the revolutionary hideout, I can't exactly go back so~ what should I do? Can I join up with one of you guys? I've never been the Captain-type." _

"_Yay~ Join my crew."_

"_No! Sabo's gonna join Pops like me!"_

"_No he's mine."_

"_Mine!"_

"_MINE."_

"_MINE!"_

"_LUFFY, ACE, SHUT UP!" Sabo cried, fed up of our arguing. "I'll decide who I go with!"_

"_Sorry." Me and Ace said glumly. _

"_Right," Sabo continued, "I'm going to stay with Ace, don't start Ace, because he is the one who needs to be watched-"_

"_Yeah right," Ace snorted, "Have you even heard about what Lu's been up to. God, some of the stuff he's done is insane."_

_I pouted slightly, it wasn't my fault that I somehow got into unbelievable situations and then had to sort other people's shit out so that I could deal with my own shit, blame the 'D' luck (or curse.)_

"_What d'ya mean?" Sabo asked._

"_Well, a few days ago I asked Luffy to tell me everything that had happened to him after I had left the island, at 17; anyway his exact words were…"_

_I watched as Ace told Sabo everything that I had told him a few days ago. Sabo's face turned from amused, to shock and then to absolute horror when Ace got to the 'absurd' parts, such as my run ins with the high rank pirates in East Blue, then my run in with Crocodile and Baroque Works, there was a fond smile on Ace's face as he described our meeting, but it turned to anger when he described the two battles that I had with Crocodile. Sabo's face was even more incredulous when Ace re-told my journeys on Sky island and then how we landed in a Marine Base afterwards, the whole Water 7 tale wasn't that shocking until Ace mentioned Enies Lobby, but Sabo seemed to be holding well. That is until the fight with Moria and Oz and then the whole Shabondy incident; Sabo gently ruffled my hair when Ace told him about my crew's separation. I got an envious look when the Isle of Women came up and then an angry look when he heard about Impel Down, but Sabo always had good restraint and managed to contain his rant until Ace had described the Marineford event, at which point he exploded_

"_**LUFFY! HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU TO BE CAREFUL AND TO LEAVE OTHER PEOPLE'S SHIT ALONE?! GOD, IT'S LIKE TALKING TO A BRICK WALL, EVERYTHING I SAY JUST BOUNCES OFF! NEXT TIME YOU GET DRAGGED INTO A DANGEROUS SITUATION, DO THE SMART THING AND GET OUT OF IT! DON'T JUST STAY JUST SO YOU CAN SEE WHAT HAPPENS! AND YOU ACE! KEEP REGULAR CORRESPONDANCE WITH HIS CREW, THAT WAY WHEN HE'S DOING THIS SHIT, YOU CAN GO OVER THERE AND TELL HIM TO STOP BEING AN IDIOT! AND THEN HIT HIM OVER THE HEAD FOR GOOD MEASURE! AND WHEN YOU'RE INJURED TO THE POINT OF NEAR DEATH, YOU GO GET PATCHED UP, YOU DON'T RUN HEADLONG INTO A WAR! YOU'VE DONE THAT TWICE NOW! AFTER BEING STABBED THROUGH THE STOMACH BY THAT CROCODILE BASTARD- WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON HIM, HE'S GONNA DIE! AND THEN AFTER IMPEL DOWN AFTER BEING POISONED- IF I EVER SEE MAGDELLAN HE'S GOING TO BEG FOR MERCY! THE POINT IS ACE, WATCH LUFFY, AND LUFFY, LEAVE OTHER PEOPLE'S SHIT ALONE!"**_

_During Sabo's rant I sat in awe at the amount of Haki Sabo was releasing and how angry he was, I hadn't seen this much fury since the Bluejam incident. However Ace had a different reaction, when reminded about Crocodile he got a murderous look on his face and calmly waited for Sabo to stop before saying in an even tone that didn't mask his fury, "Sabo we need to make a list."_

"_Yes I agree." Sabo replied with anger coating his words._

'_A list?' I thought, 'A list of what?'_

_As if they could read my mine Sabo and Ace, in sync, replied __**"A list of people we have to kill for hurting our little bro!"**_

_Whoa that's overkill; please don't tell me that they're actually going to carry that out? Who am I kidding; they're hot heads, so of course they're going to carry that out._

"_Hmm…who's the first? Buggy?"_

"_No, he was easily defeated, but then again, he tried to have Lu executed. But how about Don Krieg?"_

"_Well he does have to pay for stabbing Lu, so yeah. Who's next?"_

"_Arlong."_

"_Definitely. What about Baroque Works?"_

"_Nah most of them have been imprisoned or killed. Crocodile is on the list for sure."_

"_Yeah, we could add Enel to that as well."_

"_If we can find him."_

"_Next would be…"_

_In the end the list tuned out like this:_

_Buggy_

_Don Krieg_

_Arlong_

_Smoker (a little)_

_Crocodile_

_Enel_

_Ao Kiji (when they got stronger)_

_Lucci_

_Moria_

_Magdellan_

_These were the top ten apparently. _

"_Of course if we come across any other's that have hurt you whilst hunting down these guys then, they're dead." Ace commented, when I asked him about it._

"_But these guys are top priority, 'cause they're the ones who have dealt you the most damage. But if we find Kuma then we won't hesitate to beat him down as well." Sabo cut in._

"_Crazy." I mumbled, but they had heard me._

"_Hello Pot," Ace chirped._

"_We're Kettle." Sabo continued._

_00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000_

"I take it back, Ace isn't sensible at all; in fact they're both as crazy as you." Nami deadpanned.

"Ha," I cried, "You were with me on most of these adventures, so you can't say anything about crazy."

"He's got ya there Nami."Zoro smirked.

"Shut up." She shot back, "You're worse. How about the time that you decided to cut off your own feet to continue fighting?"

Zoro opened his mouth to retort but Usopp interrupted.

"Oi Oi. Luffy were there any other cool times with your brothers?"

"Yeah. Were there any more suuuper times with Luffy-bro's aniki?" Franky repeated.

"Well I can only think of one more. It was when I got this 'X' shaped scar…"

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

_I was sent flying backwards by the force of the old geezer's punch, he'd been aiming for the area next to my arm but I had turned and it had caught me in the chest instead. I slammed through a long line of trees and undergrowth before halting when I hit a large boulder. I stood shakily and hacked up a mouthful of blood before wobbling and collapsing onto one of the tree stumps around me, remains of those trees that my flight had destroyed._

"_Urg.." I groaned and I glanced down at the blood oozing out of my chest, there was a lot, I couldn't see how bad the wound was because the blood was obscuring it._

"_LUFFY!"_

_I spotted two figures wearing a long coat and an orange cow-boy hat in the distance, running towards me. They were covered in scratches, bruises and cuts galore but they were okay. "Hey," I croaked before hacking up more blood. "Damn geezer had a good right hook."_

"_Ok Luffy, stop trying to lighten the mood and stay still, the nurses will be here in a sec." _

"_Listen to Ace, Lu, and stay still."_

"_Mmm…" I grunted and, when Sabo put an arm round my waist, slumped against my brother._

_I don't know what happened next, I must have passed out or something, because the next thing I know I'm staring at a mop of black hair and a blond figure walking through dense trees in front of me, there was a thick layer of bandages covering my chest and the blood that I had hacked up earlier had been cleaned from my face (I could only tell because blood itches when it dries and the only itch I had was on my chest.)_

_I realised that I was hitching a ride on Ace's back, I hadn't done that in a while, and it was nostalgic. "W'at 'app'ned?" I groaned. _

"_Pops hit you." Ace growled out._

"_The nurses patched you up." Sabo added with another growl._

"_Then what's the matter?" I asked, before regretting it immediately. It was definitely the wrong thing to say._

"_What's the matter?! Pops shouldn't have been using a Haki and Devil-Fruit infused punch in a spar! You're gonna have a scar and possibly permanent rib damage because of him!" Ace ranted. Sabo just nodded, agreeing with his every word. I sighed, letting my head rest against Ace's shoulder; once they had an idea in their heads there was no stopping them. Then again, I had told the old geezer not to baby me, though I never said go all out, oh well, what's done is done…I wonder if the scar will look cool? _

_Everything felt hot and the world spun as I passed in and out of consciousness, everything was moving too fast. We were in the woods….On the beach…..The ship was looming closer… We were on the deck…The corridor….The nurses office…..Then everything went out of focus as the world spun, this time for the last, as everything went black._

_00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000_

Nami sighed, "Why is it always you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, that it's always you who get's injured doing something you think is important." She remarked.

"But getting stronger is important." I replied.

"Not if it gets you killed it isn't." Zoro, surprisingly, added. The rest of the crew stared at him for a moment before agreeing.

"Well, to each their own-"

"Stop doing that!" Sanji cried. (2)

"-Let me finish the story."

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

_I woke to the sound of laughter; again, I swear that someone, somewhere out there, is getting a kick out of the fact that I am constantly being injured. Anyway…This time the laughter was not coming from Ace, Sabo or Marco but from Rayleigh, who was watching a screen and laughing hysterically at….someone being beaten by Ace and Sabo…wait…was that…_

"_Ha Whitebeards got his ass handed to him." Rayleigh remarked, still chuckling, "Although, he probably held back after what he did to you."_

"_How did you know I was awake?" Rayleigh smirked at me and raised an eyebrow, "Stupid question, Haki." I deadpanned._

"_Yeah, anyway your brothers did an excellent job of 'punishing Pops' as they put it."_

"_Why were they 'punishing Pops?'"_

"_You know, for someone so smart you can be incredibly stupid. Just think about it."_

"_For me right? Because the old geezer injured me."_

"_Hit the nail right on the head with that one. Now shut up, I want to watch Whitebeard get his ass kicked again."_

_I shut up and we spent the next hour watching and re-watching the old geezer get pounded into the beach by two, very very angry and protective, older brothers._

_0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000_

3rd POV

"Well now you know." Luffy smirked.

Zoro smirked back, "So who won?" he asked.

"Hmmm…It was a draw really. Ace and Sabo beat up the old geezer and then got beaten up by him half an hour later, so none of them won…Except Marco."

"Marco?"

"The old geezer's first Commander. He beat up Ace, Sabo and the old geezer for damaging the ship in their fights."

"He must be strong then." Usopp added.

"You have no idea, fucking crazy phoenix." Luffy muttered as he stood from his cross-legged position and stretched out his slightly stiff legs.

"Oi." Sanji barked. "Where are you going?"

"To have a shower." Luffy replied dismissively as he strode towards the bathroom, stopping just before the door and reaching for the handle. The he paused and, to the crew's disbelief, appeared to pass _through_ the door and into the bathroom. The rest of the crew, even Robin, sat slightly stunned staring at the section of the door that their Captain had passed through.

They started slightly as the door creaked open and Luffy popped his head through the door and turned to address them, "Oh, and by the way, the shitty geezer, Ace, Sabo and Marco are meeting us in the New World after Fishman Island. Oh and it should be very entertaining, shishishishishi." With that said he removed his head and the door shut abruptly, the crew picked their slack jaws off the ground, regained their wits before turning and facing the door and each other before yelling…

"**ITTAI NANI GA!"**

**END**

**Ittai nani ga means 'What the hell'**

**(1)** **A/N Cannot be bothered to write out pages on descriptions so they all look exactly the same as they do in the manga + anime after the 2 year skip, except Zoro (but I've already described him) and Luffy (but I have described him as well.)**

**(*) I don't know where they actually are, just that they're in the 60s. Tell me if you know please ;P**

**(2) Sanji is annoyed by Luffy's smart remarks because it reminds him of how he (and the rest of the crew) didn't see through their Captain's act for 2 years.**


	3. Kyokutan ni

**A/N: Thanks for waiting, I really didn't expect it to take this long to write, but here it is, the sequel to ITTAI NANI GA. Hope you like it.**

**Also thanks to all those who reviewed:**

**Janxen222, MeikoKuran999, YingYang21, Portgas, angelrider13, RoXaS707, Lightningblade49, Sess18, sheana, Hiken08, dianesullivan, iulia17, Magic Detective, Midnight Kaito, RockgirlLuvsFanfic, sakura240, valeries26, Constructive, whitespiderlilly, LyricoJ, DragonFire Princess, doubledamn, NotMoyashi, Nivena, flee27 and Guest. **

**Also to all those who favourite'd this story and/or have alerts.**

**Thank you all for reviewing and/or favouriting and/or putting alerts on my story, I am so sorry that it took this long to complete and I hope that you enjoy it after I made you wait so long. **

**Now enjoy~**

**Kyokutan ni…**

I admit that I may have went overboard, just a bit, not much at all….ok maybe a lot, but he started it I mean how was I supposed to know that all this shit was going to happen, I may be intelligent but I'm not bloody clairvoyant,… besides anyone with a 'D' in their name just attracts trouble, it's not my fault…not at all.

**0000000000**

_1 week earlier…_

Earlier we had started our journey to Fishman Island and I had told my crew what had happened to me, it was their turn now that we had all freshened up and it was going to be entertaining.

Robin started. She told us how Kuma had sent her to an island called Tequila Wolf and that she had been captured by the people living there and had been forced to work with other slaves to complete this bridge that they had been trying to build for 700 years in an attempt to connect the islands together. Later she had been freed, along with the other slaves, by the revolutionaries, who were against the world nobles who wanted the bridge built. After that all she would say was that she trained and had a really good teacher…well Robin was always mysterious, it would also make any new skills she showed later on a surprise, it would be interesting to say the least.

Next was Brook. He told us how he had been some sort of show on the island that he had been sent to, he didn't know what the island was called though, and he said that they'd kept him in a cage and that he was very interesting to the people there due to the fact that he was a walking skeleton. He later found an agent and a company and started his life as a star as a way to get to Shabondy on time. He did say that he trained between shows but, like Robin, he didn't say any more than that.

Franky was third. He told us how he had ended up in the Kingdom of Barujimoa and how he found and learnt from the resources at Dr Vegapunk's lab and how he finally created a metal exoskeleton that wrapped around the whole of his body. He then told us how he accidently pressed the self-destruct button in the lab – the same button that he was warned not to touch – and he consequently burnt off all of his skin. He then said that he spent the next 2 years improving himself and making plans for the Sunny, though like Robin and Brook he didn't say what new abilities he'd gotten, I could tell now that this was going to be a recurring theme in all of the crews' tales. After all I hadn't told them so why should they tell me and the rest of the crew.

Then Chopper decided to tell his tale. He had landed in the Torino Kingdom in South Blue, and at first the natives had wanted to cook him but he ran away from the while the humans were fighting these giant birds. At some point Chopper had managed to stop the war between the humans and the giant birds by translating for them. It turns out that he left the island when he heard about my involvement in the war, hoping to help heal mine and Ace's wounds but, in a weird coincidence, he met a News bird which told him about my message and he returned to the island to read and train. Again, he told us nothing of his abilities and skills, wanting it to be a surprise.

The fifth was Usopp. He had landed on an island – which was not an island – called Greenstone in the Boin Archipelago. He was attacked by a really big stag beetle and saved by a local called Heracles. He became a glutton for a short time but resolved himself to become stronger when the News bird brought him the news about Marineford and my message. The island turned out to be a giant carnivorous flower that ate the animals that lived on it. He decided to train under Heracles to lend the crew his "super power" so that we wouldn't be separated again. He didn't mention any abilities he may or may not have acquired and we did not expect him to either.

Next was Sanji, who was actually crying when he told his tale – severely edited by the sound of it. He had landed on Momoiro Island in the Kamabakka Kingdom. The island had been pink and frilly and inhabited by both human and animal okama, Sanji's worst nightmare. He ran from them and he ran and ran and then he cut off shivering for some reason before mumbling a long line of curses and continuing, skipping the event that had made him shiver, and telling us how he had met Iva and saw my picture and message. He then trained around the island learning the 99 Attack Cuisine recipes so that he could get a ship and go to Shabondy. He said nothing about anything after that and, judging from the shivering and crying and cursing, it was a very bad experience for him.

Nami was seventh. She had landed on a Sky island called Weatheria and was found by a local man called Haredas who showed her weather science. She attempted and failed to steal the scientists' experiments and information and was caught but she used crocodile tears to get free. It was then that she learnt about Marineford and the whole '3D2Y' thing and decided to stay and learn about the weather in the New World. Haredas taught her about the weather ball and she turned it into a weapon. In tradition she told us nothing of the weather ball's power or what she could now do.

Zoro was the last. He told us that he had landed on Kuraigana Island in the ruins of the Shikkearu Kingdom. He told us how he and Perona, who was also sent to the island, found Mihawk and how he had defeated some things called the humandrills. He learnt about the '3D2Y' message and decided to use it to train and he then asked Mihawk to train him. Zoro didn't tell us how he had gotten the Warlord to agree; only that Mihawk had trained him and then he had met up with us on Shabondy. Zoro had said the least but we didn't expect anything more, he was never the most talkative, and he didn't tell us any of his new abilities, but since the rest of the crew hadn't Zoro wasn't expected to either.

I sighed, story time had taken longer than I'd thought that it would, almost 2 hours and by now most of us were tired and hungry so, after pestering Sanji for food, we ate a large dinner and relaxed on the lawn, fuller and even sleepier. I grinned, I was back, my crew were all here, we were all fine and we were on our way to the New World…but the atmosphere was tense, after such a long separation it wasn't easy to just fall back into crew life again…I needed to do something otherwise my crew might not ever feel relaxed around each other again…I needed to make my nakama relax, but how?

…..

…

….Got it!

I didn't usually resort to stupidity, and before you comment every action I took had some purpose or meaning even when I was hiding my intelligence, but this seemed like the best way to get rid of the tension in the air, besides it would be fun! Well for most of us anyway. So I took a deep breath and yelled

"OI GUYS!"

"WHAT?!" They screamed back, obviously pissed as it seemed like a few of them were dozing off, (cough Zoro and Chopper cough.)

"Wanna play the truth game?"

Zoro immediately looked interested, as well as Nami, Sanji, Brook, Franky and surprisingly Robin, but Usopp was unsure and Chopper looked slightly bewildered.

"What's the truth game?" Chopper asked innocently.

"It's the game where a person says a statement, such as I have never kissed a girl, and if you disagree with the statement, in this case you have kissed a girl, you take a shot of Sake." Nami explained, "Oh and Luffy, I don't think we have enough Sake for that."

"Yeah we do." I answered, "Besides from Zoro's private hidden stash, I have a decent supply of Sake and the kitchen's liquor cupboard is fully stocked."

"Wait… you have a supply of Sake?!" Sanji asked incredulously.

"More importantly…," Zoro butted in "HOW DO YOU KNOW ABOUT MY STASH?!"

"What sort of Captain would I be if I didn't know where you all kept your important items? I know the locations of Nami's treasure trove, Sanji's cigarette stash, Robin's rare book collection, Chopper's rare medical book collection, Brook's 'special' collection, Usopp's rare 'artefacts' collection and Franky's special secret designs box AS WELL AS your stash Zoro, so don't think you're the only one."

They all stared at me, Nami and Sanji were reaching for weapons and Zoro was slowly drawing his swords so I quickly added, "And of course I will not divulge the locations of these important items under any circumstances." They seemed to calm down and I quickly moved the conversation back onto the original topic. "So, Zoro, Sanji. My supply, yours or the kitchen's?"

"Why don't we use yours and the Marimo's?"

"Oi who are you calling a marimo, shitty-cook?!"

"You lawn head!"

"What was that?!"

"You heard me!"

"Oi Oi. Stop or both of your supplies are going overboard (through the bubble) before you can say 'shit!'" I snapped, I could see their resignation and their immediate decision to move their supplies as soon as possible. "Well I don't see why we can't use them both, but this is just your way of seeing how much Sake I've got isn't it Sanji, Zoro?" I smirked.

Sanji just lit a cigarette, taking a deep breath before exhaling and Zoro just smirked back at me, oh well, the tension had gone down already and we hadn't even started, my plan was working well.

Wordlessly I climbed up to the training room, pulled up one of the metal plates on the side and removed most of Zoro's stash, leaving several bottles so that we wouldn't have to deal with Sake-less Zoro, and then I jumped back down and handed the Sake to Zoro. I ignored his you-are-shitting-me look and went into the men's sleeping cabin, I then went over to the far wall and pulled off two planks of wood and emptied out my own secret stash of Sake, I had another one for salted meats and another for emergency rations hidden in separate places.

I came back onto the deck with my arms laden with Sake bottles, we had over 20 altogether, once you added mine and Zoro's together. I laid the bottles out on the deck and Zoro, picked a few up before smirking at my choices, I scowled slightly "What?! It's not my fault that I like really strong alcohol!" Zoro just smirked again before going into the kitchen and returning with 8 shot glasses, Chopper wasn't taking part so that he could make some hangover remedies for us later, and we all sat in a circle while I recited the rules,

"Right, the rules are that we keep going until we're all passed out on the deck. And you have to answer truthfully, I'll sense it if you're lying."

They nodded and the game began, we were going in order of recruitment so I was obviously first, "I've never kissed a girl." We all took a shot; even Nami and Robin which gave Sanji a nosebleed and made the other men, even Chopper, go slightly pink.

"I've never kissed a guy." Nami and Robin took the shot, then Sanji after a bit of cursing and swearing. I took the shot as well, only to promptly get stared at by the rest of the crew, I smirked and grinned at their faces and motioned for Nami to take her turn.

"I've never had a one night stand." Surprisingly Sanji, Zoro and I were the only ones not to take a shot, everyone else did. Eye opener~!

"I've never slept with someone I just met." Robin was the only one to take this shot, which made Nami splutter at her, and made Robin look amused.

"I've never had a girlfriend." Sanji took the shot, along with Franky, Brook, Usopp and Robin. The fact that Robin took the shot was a real eye opener, but then again Robin wasn't really one to discriminate so it made sense. And Sanji must have had a girlfriend at some point even if he was really annoying when he met a woman for the first time.

"I've never slept with a guy." Nami and Robin took the shot and I whispered a question into Robin's ear, I wanted to know if a situation that I had somehow been stuck in counted or not. She nodded and I took the shot with a sigh, she was really open in her definition! Apparently sleeping in the same bed as someone counted in her books, even if you hadn't done anything but sleep. I nudged Zoro and whispered in his ear and he also took the shot, scowling when Sanji laughed at him.

"I've never got drunk and woke up in someone's bed." Nami, Sanji and Zoro took this shot, which was a surprise because Nami and Zoro can really hold their alcohol and Sanji wasn't the type to get drunk enough to pass out…hmm…I'd have to ask them later, or blackmail it out of them, I really wanted to know.

"I've never cheated on a girl." Thankfully no one took this shot because Sanji looked like he was willing to murder Brook for even suggesting it, I'd hate to see what he would do if someone had actually cheated on a girl.

And so the game continued, Usopp was the first to drop out on the 11th question, Robin dropped out soon after on the 18th, Brook dropped on the 24th and then Nami on the 30th, Franky fell on the 34th with a cry of 'monsters'. Only the monster trio was left after all and we were still going strong on the 40th, though I could see that Sanji would go soon, and I was right as Sanji dropped on the 45th and only Zoro and I were left. Zoro fell on the 50th just after I said "I've never cut a man down", yes it was underhand but I'm a pirate!

After taking care of a few things I lay down on the lawn surrounded by my sleeping crew, even Chopper who had fallen asleep around the 30th shot. I smiled up into the ocean depths, I had done the calculations and it would be another day and a half yet before we would arrive at the flow that would take us down into the deep sea, so it was ok if we all slept, but I'd keep my senses on high….didn't want anythi' bad to….happen…..

**000000**

When I woke again I found myself staring at green and yellow, I temporarily wondered if I'd gone mad before realising that it was just Zoro and Sanji sleeping…..on…my arm…and chest. My disbelief turned to shock when I realised that the rest of my crew were also using me as a makeshift mattress and pillow; Zoro was sleeping on my arm, Sanji on my chest, Chopper was lying on my stomach, asleep in brain-point, Nami and Robin were using my right leg as a pillow while Brook and Franky were using my left (how Franky and Brook actually fit on my leg I will never know) and Usopp was sleeping on my other outstretched arm, curled next to Sanji.

Wow. I wanted my crew to get closer and dissolve the tension between themselves but this was ridiculous, and I couldn't move until they had all woken up otherwise Zoro and Nami would kill me for waking them up and Sanji would kill me for waking Nami and Robin up, I was stuck here any way you slice it.

My train of thought was abruptly cut off as Nami's head move slightly upwards and closer to an area that I _really_ didn't want her getting anywhere near right now, especially since she was going to wake up soon. Should I risk Nami hitting my head or my crotch . . .?

. . . . . .

Well, no decision needed, head it is. I moved my knee slightly to the side and Nami slipped back down my leg again and came to rest near Robin's head. Phew, safe.

There was no point staying awake, as the rest of my crew looked like they were going to sleep for another 4 to 5 hours yet, so I causally made myself comfortable (well as comfortable as you could be with 8 people using you as a pillow and in Chopper's case bed) and drifted off again.

**000000**

Third POV

Robin woke slowly, which was odd because usually she was up as soon as her mind was conscious but for some reason, today she didn't want to get up. She forced herself awake and was met with orange, after brief inspection it turned out to be the back of Nami's head. She glanced around her and had to hold in an amused chuckle at the sight in front of her; the whole crew, including herself, had used their captain as a pillow and she was the only one awake.

She silently crept into the women's cabin and fished a camera out of her bag; she then snuck back and took a picture of the adorable scene. The camera was one of those that instantly developed the picture and she quickly plucked the picture out of the camera and took a look. This could be used for all sorts of blackmail; she would make sure that Nami got nowhere near it.

The picture was adorable; Luffy was laying on his back o the lawn with his arms and legs outstretched around him, Zoro was using Luffy's right arm as a pillow and was gently snoring, Usopp was using Luffy's left arm as a pillow and was curled next to Sanji who was sleeping on Luffy's chest with his hand covering the large 'X' scar that was situated there, Chopper was curled asleep in brain-point on Luffy's stomach, Nami was curled on Luffy's right leg and was using it was a teddy-bear and pillow and lastly Franky and Brook had their heads next to each other and were using Luffy's left leg as a pillow.

All in all the scene was quite cute and Robin decided to just let the crew wake up on their own, if she woke them up now then more that one of them would be shocked and snap at Luffy or her, no it was much better just to let them calmly wake up and not add more fuel to the flames.

In the meantime, there was a jar of Chopper's best hangover medicine in the kitchen and this nice book on ancient ruins waiting for her in the library…

Luffy POV

When I next woke the weights on my left arm and legs had disappeared but there were still some left; one on my chest, one on my stomach and one on my shoulder. I blinked slowly and looked at the sleeping forms of Sanji, Chopper and Zoro who were splayed across my torso. I lifted my, free since Usopp had woken up, hand and gently shook Chopper slightly. Chopper just blinked at me and went back to sleep, trying the same tactic on Sanji and Zoro got me the same answer with an added grunt here and there.

I let my hand drop back down to rest on the lawn as I pondered how to wake up the three lumps without them hitting me, or more accurately; without Zoro and Sanji hitting me.

I sighed again and decided to wake Chopper up first. I gently clicked my fingers next to his ear and, since he had very sensitive hearing, it woke him up slightly. I repeated my actions until he was fully alert and held a finger to my lips when he started to shout at me, motioning to Sanji and Zoro who were still asleep. He nodded slightly and I gently pointed to Sanji and silently mouthed for Chopper to wake him up while I tried to wake up Zoro.

I failed….but Chopper didn't; he got out some _really_ strong smelling salt in a bottle and waved it under Sanji's nose. Within seconds Sanji was awake and had leapt off me with a shriek, not that he'll ever admit that he shrieked though.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" He screamed, not disturbing Zoro in the least, after all he had slept through several hurricanes, a building falling on him and being nearly burnt alive without even twitching so Sanji's scream wasn't going to move him.

"You were squashing me/Luffy." Chopper and I replied.

"And _why_ was I sleeping on Luffy?!" Sanji demanded, hastily pulling on his boots that he had left next to the railing.

"No idea." I replied, "I woke up with everyone piled on top of me and using me as a pillow, I didn't want to wake you up – you would kill me – so Ijust went back to sleep. If you do find out how you all came to use me as a pillow in the first place, please come and tell me 'cause I really want to know."

Zoro chose that moment to grunt and roll almost completely onto me, I sighed and added "Could you help me wake up Zoro, he's kinda stuck on me and I _do_ have things to do today."

"With pleasure." Sanji said grinning evilly as he raised one steel shoed leg above his head and brought it down on Zoro's head with a loud THWACK! Zoro reacted like any pissed off Mugiwara would, which is to say his eyes snapped open and started to yell very loud profanities at Sanji, all the while still lying on me. Then he seemed to notice where he was, blanched and scrambled off of me.

"Luffy," Zoro all but growled, "please tell me that we didn't _do_ anything."

I smirked, "Well…."

Zoro paled dramatically and turned a little green. "We didn't?!" He yelled.

"….I didn't not like it…." I continued.

"WHAT DID WE DO?!" Zoro screamed.

"Luffy, tell him the truth or no meat for a month. I can't deal his shitty shouting right now!" Sanji stated. I pouted but relented anyway.

"All we did was sleep. Plus the rest of the crew used me as a pillow too, so you weren't the only one." I regretfully admitted; messing with people's heads was fun!

Zoro sighed in relief before reaching for his swords, probably to try to gut me and Sanji, only to grasp air. I grinned but backed away when he cracked his knuckles wearing a look that could freeze hell,

"_What did you do_?!" he growled menacingly. I backed away a few more steps until I was a reasonably safe distance away from him before replying,

"I knew you would be pretty pissed when you woke up, so I hid them along with Nami's clima-tact."

Zoro growled – I mean a full out I-am-going-to-kill-you growl – managing to look happy and really pissed off at the same time; pissed off because I had hidden his swords and happy because Nami's clima-tact had been hidden as well.

"You have 10 seconds to tell me where you hid them before I gut you with one of love-cook's kitchen knives."

By now Sanji had made his own escape so couldn't complain about his 'nickname' and the unauthorised use of his kitchen knives.

I smirked, "You can't gut me, Haki remember. Anyway I'll tell you where I hid them."

"OOhh?!" Zoro grunted, mildly surprised, "Where?"

"In an airtight box, in the aquarium."

Zoro turned away from me to retrieve his swords; he had one hand on the door handle to go inside when I added,

"The box is locked."

Zoro was across the deck in less than a second, standing only inches away from me, "What was that?!" He growled dangerously.

"The box is locked." I repeated.

"Then give me the key!"

"Okay."

Zoro looked taken aback, "Okay?" He asked, hesitantly.

"Yeah….if you can catch me." I cried, sprinting away from him, nothing like a good game of tag to lower the almost non-existent but still present tension in my first-mate, plus I was bored and we wouldn't reach the downward current for another 5 hours or so, so I had time to kill.

He was running after me now, not 2 metres behind, and gaining fast. Damn my short stature! I threw out an arm, grabbing on to the mast and rocketing across the deck.

"HEY THAT'S CHEATING!" Zoro yelled from 10 metres away.

"WE'RE PIRATES! OF COURSE WE CHEAT!" I yelled in reply before shooting through the open door and heading into the halls. I was sure that I would lose Zoro there.

I was right. Yay me!

Of course, since I have shitty luck, this was just the right time to run into Nami, who was very happy that her clima-tact was missing…NOT! What happened next could only be described as a game of cat and mouse, Nami furiously chasing me as I tore through the halls of the Sunny. Unfortunately we met up with Sanji and Zoro two hours in to the chase and they decided to tag along, Zoro because he wanted his swords back and Sanji because I had been 'disrespectful' to Nami (chwan.) I now had 3 pissed off pirates on my ass…..could this get any worse?

_4 or so hours later…_

I jinxed it, I _so_ jinxed it. _Why me_ I screamed in my head as 5 pissed off pirates took turns in chasing me around the ship, they worked in half hourly shifts, in pairs but with Zoro working on his own. I was now mildly tired, my stamina had already been off the charts, two years to develop it and I was now an inhuman stamina freak who could run at top speed for days on end, good thing too. Nami, Zoro and Sanji had now been joined by Usopp and Franky; I'm telling you never piss of the inventors; they can invent something to torture you as payback!

The, now very angry, inventors had joined the 'game' when we'd accidently run over an almost completed invention that they'd been working on for 6 hours, needless to say I was in deep shit if they got me. This is when I ran into my saviour, Robin; I ran behind here and looked at her pitifully with my patented 'Puppy-dog-eyes-of-doom' and she bit her lip slightly before turning to her furious fellow crew members and sighing,

"You can't kill Luffy."

_Yay!_

"Not before we reach the next Island anyway. You could try afterwards but that's when Ace and Sabo are supposed to be meeting us, and trying to kill their brother in front of them is not a good idea."

The five scowled, except Sanji who cried about Robin being so smart, but they saw the logic in her reasoning.

"You can always kill him afterwards though." She added, placating the five.

_Noooooo, Robin how could you! ~_ I cried internally. _But thanks, crisis averted….For now._

They, the angry mob, sighed but listened to Robin and lowered their fists slightly, before Zoro thrust his hand under my nose and looked at me with a give-me-what-I-want-before-I-kill-you look. I sighed and put the key to the air tight box on his open palm, he immediately set off for the aquarium, Nami in tow, to get his weapons, and consequently Nami's, back.

I thanked Robin before stretching then tiredly collapsing into one of the three deck chairs and absently picking up a book from the table to read. It was quite dark by now and when Usopp commented on it Robin and Franky explained that they were well out of the Sunlight stratum by now and coming to the end of the twilight stratum, so we must be 10,000 down (10,000 of what I thought, but they said nothing.)

"I don't feel like we're on a submarine it's more like we're flying." Robin stated, I decided to give up on reading and tune in to the conversation.

"Ooh it's a whale!" Chopper pointed out excitedly.

"LABOOOON!" Brook sung.

"Nah it's more like the old geezer." I said, joining the conversation.

"Who's the old geezer?" Chopper asked.

"It's Whi-!" I started, but cut off abruptly when I sensed something big heading our way….it felt like a ship with something huge towing it…and that something felt strangely familiar.

"Oi." I yelled startling everyone out of their wits, "Heads up, we've got company."

"Who?" Zoro yelled from across the deck.

"Don't know." I admitted, standing up and stretching. "Well whoever they are, they have something like a sea king pulling their boat."

"Ehh?!" Chopper cried, "When will they be-"

"There's something like a ship coming from behind us! And it's heading straight for us!" Usopp shouted, frantically waving his arms around and pointing widely at – what I assumed was – the ship that was closing in on us.

I scowled as the other ship crashed into the Sunny with a loud bang, the bubbles coating the ships pressing against each other and my eyes widened as I saw what they were trying to do.

"Guys!" I yelled, drawing my crew's attention, "They're trying to merge the bubbles so that they can board, get ready to fight!"

"Righ—"

"Wait!" I snapped out, interrupting their shout, "Belay that!"

"What! Why?!" Nami cried, confusion filling her words.

"Well," I smirked, "Look at what's pulling their ship." I grinned, carelessly waving at the Sea King pulling the ship.

"Wait…it that?"

"Yep."

"Mohmoo?!" Nami cried.

"The very same." I answered, grinning despite the other crew looming at us.

Mohmoo seemed to realise just _who_ he was looking at though, as Nami yelled at him through the bubble, and _then_ he noticed me and Sanji. He turned teary eyed as he remembered Sanji's kick to the chin and my wind mill attack that had used him as a weapon before it sent him flying, the huge cow sea king then turned tail and swam away at top speed with tears in his eyes, ignoring the fact that he had just left behind his captain – who had been the only one fast enough to jump aboard before his ship was dragged away.

Said captain turned very _very_ pale as he realised that his crew had all but abandoned him and that he was now staring at nine very strong pirates.

"I-I'm j-just a h-hostage." He cried, lying through his teeth.

"Yeah right, Caribou of the _Caribou_ pirates." I smirked, "I can sense that you're lying…and I saw your bounty poster on the way through Shabondy. So don't lie to me; I know _exactly_ who you are."

"O-oh…?…I d-don't know w-what you're t-talking about." Caribou stuttered, trying and failing to look innocent.

"Well, what don't I enlighten you then?" I asked, "Captain 'Wet-Haired' Caribou of the Caribou pirates, bounty of 210 million berri. Described as deranged, sadistic and prone to acts of brutal violence…which is the only reason why your bounty is that high in the first place." I described, happily watching as his face turned paler and paler.

"So," Zoro asked, cracking his knuckles ominously as Caribou started to sweat, "What shall we do with the little liar?"

"I suggest slow roasting him in my secret sauce." Sanji replied, impatiently clacking his steel lined shoes on the deck, making Caribou sweat even more.

"Now don't be too hasty Sanji-san, Zoro-san," Robin cut in, much to Caribou's relief, "We could use him as sea king bait for when they come too close." She finished, making Caribou almost burst into tears.

"Good idea, Robin-chwan~!"

"Let's just throw him overboard and be done with it."Franky added in, yanking Caribou up by the back of his shirt with his massive robotic hands.

Zoro merely nodded his agreement and settled for letting Franky throw the enemy captain overboard to drown or be crushed by the sea's pressure.

Chopper, Usopp and Nami, meanwhile, were happily ignoring the ongoing how-to-kill-the-pirate session and were watching giant fish swim by with Brook.

I forced down the urge to sweat drop at my crew's antics and instead settled for putting a stop to the how-to-kill-the-pirate session before Caribou actually got killed,

"We can't kill him," I interrupted, bringing tears of hope to Caribou's eyes, "Yet." The hope in his eyes immediately died.

Zoro, Robin, Sanji and Franky stared at me.

"Why?" They echoed, with a slight whine…not that they'll ever admit to it.

"He could be useful later along the line, besides he can be a hostage if his crew ever come back and we can use him as bait. But if he tries anything…" I paused, directing my next words at the enemy pirate, "…well…I could always use him as an experiment to see how much Haki I can direct at one mind before either his head explodes or his mental functions are reduced to that of a carrot." I finished, watching as Robin smiled victoriously and Zoro, Sanji and Franky nodded in agreement while a pale and trembling Caribou sweated bullets.

"Besides," I added as an afterthought, "We should just tie him to the rails with sea stone handcuffs, and then we can focus on _them_." I absently waved to the _things_ over my shoulder as my crew gaped at it.

"What the hell?!" Usopp yelled, staring at the huge 'waterfall' behind me, "What is _that?!_"

"The downwards flow." Nami answered, also gaping, "I never thought that it would be so huge."

"Oh and you need to put on some coats right now." I added in a serious tone, "It's gonna get really cold once we go down there and I don't want any of you getting sick because of it."

They nodded again and set about collecting their coats and grabbing a set of sea stone cuffs, when we even managed to get them is a mystery to me though, and we handcuffed Caribou to the rail before promptly ignoring him and facing the next obstacle on our way to Fishman island.

"Oi Luffy," Zoro grunted, drawing my attention away from the giant waterfall ahead and onto my first mate, "You said 'them' earlier, what did you mean?"

I was surprised that Zoro had picked up on that, but hey looks can be deceiving, I'm a prime example of that, if I could act dumb and be clever then so could Zoro.

"Oh, well I was referring to two things really. The first was the downwards flow."

"And the second?" Sanji asked, having heard Zoro's question.

"The Kraken that is lurking near the plume to crush any ships that try to get to said downwards flow." I told them casually, motioning to the plume and then to the Kraken in front of it.

Jaws dropped.

"Why didn't you tell us this before?!" Nami shrieked borderline hysterically.

"Because then you would panic and attack him and I wouldn't be able to get him to pull our ship." I explained.

"What?!" She shrieked again, along with Usopp and Chopper this time.

"If we can _convince_ him to tow our ship, then we will move much faster and be much safer. After all, not much can mess with a Kraken." I pointed out.

"Yeah…I suppose…" Usopp, Chopper and Nami muttered, still not looking very convinced.

"Just trust me, okay?" I half-pleaded, I _really_ wanted to fight that Kraken.

"Fine." Nami sighed, "It's not as if we could stop you anyway." She reluctantly admitted.

"Great! Oh and don't worry, I won't let the big guy near the ship." I chirped, giving them a reassuring grin, before turning to Sanji and Zoro – who were already in their personal bubbles – and giving them a short nod.

They grinned back – looking far too happy about the current predicament – as I climbed into my own bubble, before sprinting off the ship and into the water, Zoro and Sanji close behind me.

"Oi! Guys, come here!" I yelled, prompting Sanji and Zoro to run closer to me so that we could hash out some sort of plan, "You guys keep it away from Sunny while I Gear up for an attack." I said, nodding to where the Kraken's tentacles were already creeping towards the ship.

"Right!" They yelled back, before we split to avoid a fast attack from the huge sea creature.

The battle was very fast paced, although I barely moved as Sanji and Zoro showed off their new moves while I focused on getting my rubber abilities to work underwater.

"Sanji! Dodge left!" I yelled, as a giant tentacle shot past me, aiming for Sanji who had been deflecting the smaller 'arms' away from Sunny.

Sanji reacted almost instantaneously, shooting out of his bubble and getting through the sea using something that vaguely resembled the CP9's moon walk, if not for the fact that Sanji's was a hell of a lot faster than the CP9's and that Sanji's also seemed to require less movement – how he had managed to get that factor was a mystery – but the technique was just as effective as that of the CP9.

It was at that moment that Sanji decided to get serious, he darted towards one of the larger tentacles, spinning mid-step to create his _'Diable Jambe'_ before launching himself at said tentacle, furiously kicking at the large arm, imprinting the huge limb with a burn in a criss-crossed pattern…not unlike the burn you would receive if you stuck your hand in a grill…I grinned; I suddenly had a pretty good idea about what Sanji had named this new technique.

While I had been amusing myself with trying to come up with interesting names for Sanji's technique, Zoro had darted forward, his bandana already tied around his head, ready for battle, he shot forwards, all three swords gripped solidly in his hands and mouth. He then leapt straight at the huge tentacle, and swung and I suddenly had a good idea of what he had learnt from Mihawk because he managed to cut off that tentacle completely, before said limb was split into six separate parts.

He smiled smugly at Sanji as he withdrew, leaving me to take care of the 'final blow' and knock the damn Kraken out. By now I was getting frustrated with the amount of blows that Sanji and Zoro had to block for the Sunny – I was not about to sit/float there and let _my _ship and _my _nakama be knocked around by an overgrown cephalopod!

I lifted my – now giant – fist, raising it above my head, straining slightly to keep my concentration while completely submerged in sea water,

"Armament." I intoned quietly, as my whole fist turned black and took on a metallic look, I cocked it back, glaring at the damn cephalopod that had dared to attack _my _ship and _my _crew, before letting it fly, "Gomu gomu no…" I began, all too aware of Zoro and Sanji watching attentively a few metres away, "Elephant Gun!"

My fist smashed straight into the damn cephalopod's head, sending him (yes it was a him, don't ask) flying/floating backwards, unconscious due to the amount of force and Haki I had put into my fist (he had to learn that attacking me and my crew was not acceptable), before starting to slowly float towards the downwards flow, carried by the immense weight and force of the water.

"That worked well." I smiled, satisfied, before turning back to Zoro and Sanji, "We need to get back to the Sunny, before we get dragged into the downwards flow like the kraken."

"Damn, if that thing gets dragged down then we'll be sitting ducks if we don't move." Sanji noted, now safely back in his bubble.

"Then let's get going then!" Zoro replied, already moving back towards the Sunny.

"Idiotic MARIMO!" Sanji hollered after him, racing to catch up after Zoro's short head start.

"I missed this!" I grinned, laughing as I watched them argue all the way back to the Sunny, being with my brothers for two years was fun and all, but I just knew that if I had been with both them _and_ my crew, it would've been a riot!

I was quickly drawn back to reality when I felt something wrap around my waist, passing through the bubble effortlessly, and forcing me to stop dead in my tracks. I turned, almost robotically, towards my captor, ignoring the shouts and yells of horror from my crew as they rushed to help me, instead focusing on finding out just who or what had managed to get hold of me…

…I should have known. It was obvious really. There was only one who/what my captor could be; the Kraken himself.

I was really getting tired of that stupid cephalopod – always interrupting and getting in the way – and was about to show him what I really thought of his stupid antics, when I caught that look in his eye. That oh so familiar look. One that told of hardship and loss. Longing.

I froze, fist raised. I couldn't hit him. I could never hit him. Not now. Not after I saw the pain in his eyes. The look I had carried a few years ago. The look Ace had worn for a good ten years of his life. I couldn't hit him. Not even when I noticed that we were both being pulled into the abyss below the downwards flow. And I merely shook my head and held out my hand when Zoro and Sanji started running to my rescue, proclaiming Zoro the Captain while I was away. I smiled and yelled that I would see my nakama soon, even as they shouted and screamed at me to do something and to not just _sit there. _But how could I? How could I fight back? I had known those eyes. I lived for years with that same expression, putting on a happy face while I was ripped apart inside.

I knew what I was going to do, my crew would be fine on their own for just a little while, I was going to find out who had caused those eyes; the monster that had inflicted such sorrow onto this creature. And I was going to beat them into the ground.

I nodded to myself, casting one last look towards my crew, as both myself and the Kraken were dragged downwards, down into the depths…well, there went my idea about the Kraken towing the Sunny.

As soon as my crew was out of sight, I turned to face the huge creature, staring him right in the eye, trying to find out just who had wounded him so deeply.

It didn't really come as a surprise when the thick tentacle that was wrapped around me began to tighten, crushing me in my bubble as the furious Kraken tried to pulverise my ribs, at the same time a second tentacle curled around my neck, cutting off my air supply.

A small application of Haki to both my neck and my chest and waist soon cleared up my breathing problem, but that didn't stop the Kraken from trying to crush me.

So, going on instinct, I raised a Haki coated hand and slapped the tentacle that was wrapped around my waist – gently, not to hurt him, just to gain his attention – earning a startled look from the Kraken.

"Hey," I said softly, earning more startled looks, "I know what it's like, to lose someone, to have them taken away." I continued, as the grip around my waist and neck suddenly stopped tightening, "It hurts. To have someone you love cruelly ripped away from you, it hurts _so much. _But, it isn't the end; I can see the look of hope in your eyes, I can tell that whoever you lost isn't gone forever; you can still get them back…I'll help you get them back; I'm going to meet up with my brothers after Fishman island, I'm sure that they can take you to wherever your loved one is. They're part of Whitebeard's crew, and the old man owes me a favour anyway. I'll cash that in and get them to help you. How does that sound?" I smiled gently.

I don't know who was more surprised in that moment; the Kraken because I made such an offer, or me when I was pulled towards said cephalopod and thoroughly hugged for making the offer. Only a quick coating of Haki on the bubble stopped it from breaking, and then only just.

"I guess you like that, huh big guy." I chuckled, taking his feverish nods as all the confirmation I needed, "Okay, okay. I get the point, you can stop nodding now." I let out a relieved sigh when he stopped, "Right. If this is going to work then we need to get to Fishman Island first. Do you know where it is?" I asked.

Cue another round of spastic nodding.

"Great! Can you take us there?"

More nodding.

"Well what are we waiting for?!" I grinned, finally feeling as if we were getting somewhere, "Let's go!"

**000000**

"Hey, Surume?" I turned to face my new friend, "Do you think I have enough time to nap before we get there?" I was bored, and when I was bored and had nothing to do I often got tired, it was during those times that I usually napped next to Zoro or on the figure head. But I obviously couldn't do that now, so I was just going to have to settle with sleeping, curled up in the bubble.

A furious set of nods were my reply.

"Great." I murmured as I shifted around in the small space, trying, in vain, to get into a comfortable position for my nap, "Wake me up when we get there, or if we come across my crew please." I yawned.

He bobbed his head dutifully, wrapping long limbs around my Haki reinforced bubble and hiding me from sight. I sighed in relief when the ones wrapped around be loosened, layering over my curled up form and under my head, acting very much like a combined bed and pillow; the limbs were a bit damp from the water outside but I couldn't argue with it, why would I, it was keeping me warm, so I didn't really care.

Finally I gave Surume a sleepy pat on the arm, snuggling into my makeshift bed as I did, and settled down for my nap.

**000000**

_Warm…it was really warm…_

Poke.

_I didn't want to wake up…_

Poke.

_Damn…whoever was trying to wake me up sure was persistent…_

Poke. Poke. Poke.

_Leave me alone already…can't you see that I'm trying to sleep…_

Poke. Poke. Poke.

_Does this guy not know the meaning of personal space?_

Poke. Poke. Poke.

_This guy's just begging me to hit them._

Poke. Poke. Poke.

_One more time…do that one more time and I will DESTROY you!_

Poke. Poke. Po–

_That's it!_

"God damn it! Stop poking me!" I exploded, my eyes flying open to find out which persistent bugger had decided to wake me up…

Only to be met by a giant, startlingly huge, very very pink, mermaid…

Who immediately started crying.

"UWAAAAAAAAAAH! FATHER! FUKABOSHI–ONIISAMA! RYUUBOSHI–ONIISAMA! MANBOSHI–ONIISAMA! THERE'S A HUMAN IN MY ROOM AND HE'S SHOUTING AT ME!" *

Damn she was loud!

I ignored her wailing with all the patience and skill of a master, deciding instead to have a look round and find out just where the heck I was. Number one, I was in a large tower of some sorts, which was quite apparent from the rounded walls, and the bubble was gone. Two, I was in a large room, very girly, and specifically made for this huge mermaid to live in. Three, we were on a bed…why we were on a bed? Four, there was a large set of doors behind me, they were open a little, and I could just about make out a large shark outside and Surume, having what appeared to be an interesting conversation. Five, there was a huge spinning axe heading straight for the mermaid through the slightly opened doors…wait what?

I reacted instantly, throwing myself across the room and intercepting the spinning axe with a loud grunt, redirecting it into the wall with ease.

"What the hell? Why is there an axe here?" I asked, looking towards the mermaid for my answer.

She just blinked back at me for a moment before loud shouting from outside turned her gaze towards the door.

"Princess Shirahoshi! We're on our way!" *

"Why's the door open?! What's going on?!"

"Princess Shirahoshi!" The voices cried as guards swarmed through the doors, "Are you alright?!" *

I watched from my hiding place behind the mermaid – Shirahoshi – as she reassured the guards that she was fine and that she'd just had a bad dream. I had been quite surprised when she had grabbed me and all but threw me behind her, hiding me from view.

"Ah yes, there is something else I should speak to you about. It regards the pirate, Mugiwara no Luffy, who was responsible for saving Megalo." *

I was quite interested now, I hadn't even been here for that long, what the hell had I managed to fuck up if I wasn't even here?

"The situation has become rather complicated, you see…" *

Fuck, how the hell had that happened? I wasn't even conscious until a few minutes ago! I didn't even know how I got here…although I assume that Surume brought me here…

"…and as such…under suspicion of the kidnapping of the missing mermaids…" *

What? How the hell could I have done that?! The first mermaid that I had met on this island was Shirahoshi! How the hell had I kidnapped anyone?!

"…and as a precaution against these possible future misdeeds…" *

Okay, these bastards were just discriminating against pirates in general now…always assuming that we were going to pillage and murder. Well, I've saved more islands than I can count. And from the marines and so called 'authorities' and 'justice system' most of the time, so you can take your discrimination and shove it where the sun don't shine!

"…the decision has been made to confine the entire Mugiwara crew to the palace dungeons." *

As if we'll go quietly, especially as we haven't done anything! Now, I may not have been with my crew for awhile, but I know that none of them would fall so low as to kidnap innocent mermaids! That just wasn't what we stood for! If these discriminating, judgemental, anti-pirate, idiotic bastards wanted to take us then we weren't going done without a fight!

"The swordsman who arrived at the palace ahead of the others, has already been apprehended." *

Well fuck. I bet that they caught him while he was sleeping…it's not as if that's never happened before.

"The three further crew members who just arrived at the castle have most likely been apprehended by now as well!" *

…I thought that we had gotten better at not getting caught…

"The only problem is…the captain of their crew, Mugiwara no Luffy, seems to have gone missing!"

Damn…now I wonder where he could be…hmmm…

"Presumably he discovered our intentions to apprehend him somehow, and has concealed himself somewhere in the palace. We must all be on our guard!" *

Now how could I have done that? I don't even know how I got here! I just woke up here!

"Fear not; we will apprehend his other crewmates from their various locations across Fishman island and ensure the safety of our proud kingdom!" *

Like hell you will. Like I said…thought…before, there's no way in hell that we're going down without a fight!

"It pains me greatly that we are forced to greet Megalo's saviours with chains and cells rather than the planned celebrations." *

Wait…celebrations? Damn, I missed out on good meat! I was _so_ going to kill whoever had set us up!

"…Ah…It would seem that five minutes have passed. In that case we will be leaving!" The guard commented, staring at his watch, and without further ado the guards turned tail – some literally – and left, closing the door behind them.

There was a moment of awkward silence before I was gently lifted out from behind her back and brought up to eye level.

"I must apologise for the rudeness of the guards. You have been here for a while and I do not think that you could have kidnapped those mermaids, I don't think that you are a bad person, just because you are a pirate. And I must thank you for saving Megalo." She said, motioning to the large shark that was edging through the doors.

"That's okay. I don't even know when I saved him really." I smiled, patting the shark on the nose.

"Your name is…Luffy-sama, yes?"

"Yeah, you don't have to use sama though." I replied.

"It would appear that your companions have been captured by the palace guards." She said regretfully. *

"Yeah…I have no idea how _that_ happened. I thought we were better at not getting captured." I mused, echoing my earlier thoughts, "In any case they'll never be able to keep my nakama captured for long, they'll break out sooner or later…Anyway, why did that axe fly in here just now? You didn't look very surprised so you must know what kind of maniac threw that thing, and from where." I commented.

"I believe…I know the one responsible. It is a man named Vander Decken–sama…He seems to have a grudge against me because I refused his proposals of marriage…From what I gather, he is cursed with a demonic power by the name of 'Mato Mato'…it allows him to target me at any time, no matter where he may be…As such, I am never permitted to leave this Shell tower, for it would be far too dangerous for me to be out in the open." She sighed, downcast.

"God that must suck!" I yelled, incensed, "That bastard is trying to kill you because you won't marry him! And because of him you can't leave the tower, under the threat of death! How long has this been going on for?!" I had made my decision, there were three people down here that I was going to beat until they pissed blood; the first was the bastard who had hurt Surume, the second was the person who had framed me and my crew, and the third was this Vander Decken bitch…honestly targeting a defenceless girl just because she wouldn't marry you, the man was obsessed, it was better for me to beat some sense into him before his obsession made him go to even greater lengths to enact his petty revenge.

"It has been ten years now…" She replied. *

"That bastard…" I grit out, this Decken-teme had just made it to the top of my list.

"What is more, my father has decreed that even the guards may not spend more than five minutes in my presence…And so I have nobody to talk to but my beloved Megalo…He is my only friend in the world." She turned to look fondly at the large shark.

"So that's why you wanted to throw us a party! Makes sense…But he's not your only friend now, I'm your friend to, and I'm sure the rest of my nakama would love to meet you!" I grinned.

She smiled back, "Since you are a pirate, do you go out on what is known as 'adventures'? Have you ever seen the 'sun'? Also…have you seen the many types of 'flowers', or the hair-covered creatures know as 'animals'? have you ever been to a green location known as a 'forest'?" She asked, looking excited at the mere thought of hearing about the outside world. *

"Okay!" I yelled, leaping up from my seated position in her hands, "Shirahoshi, for my first act as your new friend, I am going to…" I paused for dramatic effect, "…take you outside!"

"EHHHHHHH?! I…I could not possibly…!" She stuttered out, looking stunned. *

"Don't worry, if anything comes flying at you, I'll send it straight back where it came from!" I assured her, "So…where do you want to go?"

"Well…the ocean forest." She said, sounding quite guilty at the very idea of wanting to go outside. *

"Okay then, I'll take you there." I replied hastily, seeing the tears and the doubt build up in her eyes, "Let's–"

I was cut off by a loud banging and rumbling sound, and I immediately turned towards the source of the noise, even as Shirahoshi covered her ears and shied away from the banging.

"Is that Decken-teme throwing stuff at you again?" I wondered out loud, frowning at the thought. I turned to face the mermaid princess, only to double take at the sheer amount of tears and snot falling down her face.

"Hey hey," I tried to sound reassuring, "Don't cry." I couldn't deal with crying women, instead I hastily tried to change the subject, "Why the ocean forest? Of all the places you could go, why there?" I asked, sighing in relief as she stopped crying.

"I have always longed to visit the ocean forest." She replied…she hadn't really answered my question but I was just relieved that she had stopped bawling, "Luffy-sama…will you really…take me out of this place?" *

"Of course." I sounded indignant.

"…You truly promise to protect me?" * She asked, looking quite scared at the prospect of going outside.

"Yeah. You'll be fine, leave everything to me…I have a plan." I smirked mischievously, this was going to work!

…Famous last words.

**000000**

"Okay," I whispered, peeking around the door to check that the guards hadn't noticed us yet, "You can come out now, Shirahoshi." I motioned for her to move.

"Okay." She whispered back, quietly edging through the open doors.

Meanwhile I focused my Haki on the guards, setting up for the projection of the illusion that everything was fine and that this was just a normal day of guard duty.

A little known fact was that, although you could use more than one type of Haki at once, certain types of Haki could also be _mixed_ to create a new sub-type, currently I was mixing my Haoshoku Haki with Observational Haki, allowing me to project my 'observations' onto other people. This meant that I could project an illusion of a normal day onto the guards to hide the fact that Shirahoshi was sneaking out. This sub-type was known as Gensōshoku (illusion colour Haki) or genjutsu (illusion art.)

"Genjutsu; Seijō!" I whispered, projecting my illusion out to the guards, and, once I was sure that the illusion had sunk in, I motioned for Shirahoshi to get us outta there.

Needless to say, she swan away faster than Sanji chasing after a pretty girl, and thankfully the guards were none the wiser concerning her escape. Surume and Megalo trailed after us and I quickly included them in the illusion.

"Come on Shirahoshi! Surume! Megalo!" I yelled, prompting them to swim faster, "I can only project the illusion for so long, and only in a 500 yard radius, make sure you don't fly too high otherwise you'll be spotted!" I told them, noticing that we were starting to climb higher and higher.

"Okay, Luffy-sama!" Shirahoshi replied, making sure she stayed low to the ground, with Surume and Megalo giving nods in reply.

I winced when I heard the screaming and shouting from the palace behind us, grimacing when the words 'kidnapped by Mugiwara no Luffy' kept coming up.

"Wow." Shirahoshi breathed, drawing my attention away from the chaos back at the palace, "Is this what you call an adventure?"* She asked, looking a hell of a lot like Chopper when someone gave him cotton candy.

"Yeah." I smiled, glad that I had decided to do this, "Anyway, why did you want to go to the 'ocean forest' in the first place? You never answered my question." I asked her, now quite curious as to why she would want to go there.

"A grave!" she answered, a huge smile blossoming across her face, "There's a grave I've never been to since it was built…For ten years…It's the place I've wanted to go the most…" *

"That's a little unusual…" I smiled slightly, "But not more so than some of my ambitions. I'll take you there…for sure!" I grinned, and my smile only got wider when I saw who we were passing over.

"Oi! Sanji! Chopper! Hey!" I yelled down at them.

"Eh?! LUFFY?!" They cried out in surprise.

"Hey guys!" I grinned, "Long time no see!"

"'Long time no see'?!" Sanji echoed, a furious look on his face, "YOU SHITTY RUBBER! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW WORRIED WE'VE BEEN?!"

" BASTARD! WE WERE WORRIED ABOUT YOU AND YOU JUST SHOW UP LIKE THIS?!" Chopper yelled.

"Sorry guys!" I yelled back, regretting leaving them, "But I had to do something important!" I told them, trying to convey my seriousness on the matter.

They sighed in defeat, knowing that I wouldn't back down, instead choosing to focus on finding out as much as they could,

"You'd better tell us all later, shitty rubber!" Sanji yelled.

"Yeah! Zoro and Nami are gonna kill you if you don't." Chopper warned.

"Right right!" I conceded, "Anyway, I'll be down in a minute!" I hollered back, cutting our conversation short.

"Umm…Luffy-sama, why can they see you but not me?" Shirahoshi asked hesitantly.

"I changed the illusion slightly so that they could see me flying on Megalo, but not you and Surume." I answered, "I have a feeling that them seeing either of you would do more harm than good right now." I told her honestly, "I'll be back in a minute though; I gotta take care of some things!" I said, before leaping out of her arms and down to the ground.

"Hachi!" I yelled, seeing said fishman lying blood soaked on the ground, running over to him, completely ignoring the shouting of the people around us and the calls of 'kidnapper' coming from the crowd, "What happened Hachi?!" I yelled, turning to Chopper and Sanji for the answer.

"He won't tell us." Chopper replied, "I bandaged him up but he just keeps telling us to get off the island!"

_That_ sent alarm bells ringing in my mind; Hachi knew how strong we were, that meant that he thought that whatever was about to happen here was stronger than us, and that was worrying.

"…Mugiwara…" Hachi gasped out, breaking my focus for a moment and causing the illusion to drop.

"Shit." I muttered, seeing the on looking crowds immediately focus on Shirahoshi and Surume.

"Princess Shirahoshi!" They yelled in shock, "They've kidnapped the mermaid princess!"

"The Kraken!" Chopper and Sanji yelled at the same time.

"Double shit." I let my head drop into my hands, why me? Why does this stuff always happen to me?

I ignored the whole by-play with Sanji and Chopper concerning whether or not Sanji should look at the mermaid princess…although I was quite surprised that he turned to stone, and mentally filed that away to ask about later…instead I chose to focus on a crying Shirahoshi, and tried to figure out a way to convince her that this was my fault and not hers.

"Listen! Shirahoshi!" I yelled, dodging the crowd's attempts to capture me, "It was my illusion, not yours, so it's my fault that it dropped, not yours! Don't cry, this is an adventure remember! It's nothing to cry about!"

"Really?" She sniffled.

"Yeah!" I grinned, gaining a weak smile in return, now I could focus on the flying thing that wa heading straight for us.

"There's something heading straight for us!" One fishman called out.

"Is that Vander Decken?!" Another yelled.

"Vander Decken?" I whispered, murder burning in my eyes, causing the crowd to back away in fear, "Would this be the same Decken-teme that's been trying to kill you, Shirahoshi?"

"Yes." She nodded weakly.

"Good." My smile was sickeningly sweet, "I wouldn't want to kill the wrong person, now would I?"

At that point, the object of my ire chose to make itself known,

"SHIRAHOSHI! ANSWER ME THIS, SHIRAHOSHI! SAY 'YES', AND YOU WONT HAVE TO DIE!"*

"As if I'll let that happen." I muttered murderously, activating my Armament Haki and telling Surume to prepare to kick this guy's ass.

"MY DEAR SHIRAHOSHI! MARRY ME!" Decken-teme screeched.*

I was just about ready to kill that bastard; did he have no shame? Asking a women who he had tried to kill for ten years to marry him?!

"You're not my type!" Shirahoshi replied, making me chuckle at the weird answer, who'd have thought that the girl had that sort of mind frame?

Decken-teme, on the other hand, looked like someone had killed his puppy,

"HOW DARE YOU TRAMPLE ALL OVER TEN YEARS OF LONGING!" He screeched, "YOU WOULD CHOOSE ANOTHER OVER ME?!"

"Who wouldn't?" I muttered, drawing a giggle from the fretting mermaid princess.

"IF YOU WILL NOT LOVE ME…THEN YOUR VERY EXISTENCE IS AN INSULT! DIE SHIRAHOSHI!" He screamed.

"Don't move, Shirahoshi!" I yelled as she prepared to swim away, "If you go too far away…I won't be able to protect you!" *

"Ah, alright, I won't move." She promised.

"Good." I grinned, ignoring the annoying screeches of people who had no idea about the situation and kept accusing me of kidnapping their princess.

Crouching down slightly I shot up into the air, reaching Decken–teme in seconds.

"BASTARD!" I yelled as I used one leg to destroy the huge piece of coral that he had been riding on, and another to send him flying up into the air.

"This is between me and my beloved Shirahoshi!" He growled dementedly, "Why must you interfere?!"

"Because you're the bastard that's been ruining her life!" I replied, nailing him with an upper hook to the jaw, "It's because of you that she can't go out and enjoy the world!" I cried as I heel dropped him into the ground, forming a large crater around his head, "You fucking bastard!" I yelled one last time, sending my Haki enforced fist straight into his head, burying his head in the ground completely.

"We're leaving! Shirahoshi! Megalo! Surume! Sanji! Chopper! Hachi!" I yelled as soon as I had both feet back on the ground.

"Yes! Luffy-sama!" Shirahoshi replied, again I received nods from both Megalo and Surume, while Chopper helped Sanji and Hachi climb into Shirahoshi's hands, then, with another nod from me she took off and flew away as if the hounds of hell were chasing her.

We narrowly avoided a huge giant thing called…Wadatsumi apparently. And were soon well on our way to the ocean forest.

_A short while later…_

"This place is beautiful." I breathed, my eyes darting to and fro, trying to capture the scene firmly in my mind.

"Thank you so much, Luffy-sama…!" Shirahoshi bawled, "I have always wanted to come here!" *

"That's what friends are for." I told her, a wide smile on my face.

"Maybe we'll be able to rest and heal here." Chopper mused.

I nodded thoughtfully, scanning the area for anything that was amiss; instead I found something that I had dearly missed for quite some time,

"SUNNY!" I yelled, throwing my hands up into the air in joy, "Oh, and Franky too!"

"LUFFY-BRO!" Franky yelled back, looking delighted, "The first time I see ya in a long time and you've brought quite the pinup-girl with you!"

I grinned stupidly as we landed, rushing over to Sunny and throwing my arms around her,

"Sunny!" I grinned, "I missed you!"

"Hey, what are we, chopped liver?" Chopper, Sanji and Franky retorted.

"I missed you too!" I ran at them, hugging Sanji and Chopper briefly before jumping up onto Franky's shoulder and making myself comfortable.

"Umm…Luffy-sama…"

"Whoops." I muttered in embarrassment, where were my manners…oh yeah, I was a pirate…never mind, "Shirahoshi, this is Franky, my shipwright. Franky, this is Shirahoshi, the mermaid princess and my new friend!" I introduced them from my perch on Franky's shoulder.

"Nice to meet you." They said in sync.

"Luffy," Franky turned to face me, "Robin showed up a while back, too. Says she'd looking for something. She went off into that big coral forest." *

"Huh, small world…island…anyway, I'll go see her soon." I replied.

"LUFFY-KUN! I barely recognised you! It's been quite some time!" a voice shouted from behind me.

I turned around and smiled as I saw who the voice belonged to, "JIMBE! Long time no see!" I laughed, sliding off of Franky's shoulder and walking over to greet him.

"Did you get my message?!" He asked.

"I've only been conscious on this island for an hour or so, I have no idea what's going on at the moment…" I trailed off, now that comment got the attention of my nakama as well as Jimbe.

"What do you mean Luffy?" Sanji asked, now aware of the world and not a stone statue.

"Well last this I remember was taking a nap in my little Haki enforced bubble, and the next thing I know I'm being poked awake my Shirahoshi here." I told them.

"Ah, princess Shirahoshi, I didn't see you there." Jimbe suddenly realised that there was a larger than life mermaid sitting behind me…I thought that he was supposed to be observant…

"Boss Jimbe-sama!" Shirahoshi called out, also realising that Jimbe was standing in front of me…are all mermaids and fishmen this unobservant or is it just these two…?

"Anyway…" I said loudly, drawing them out of their pleasantries, "Can anyone explain to me how I went from the seep ocean in a bubble to Shirahoshi's shell tower without a bubble?"

"Surume brought you to me, Luffy-sama, he said that you wouldn't wake up…and the bubble disappears when you cross the border into Fishman island." Shirahoshi explained.

"Well, I've always been a deep sleeper…" I muttered, trying to rationalise her explanation.

"PRINCESS SHIRAHOSHI!" Jimbe yelled, seemingly just realising that she wasn't supposed to be here, "WHY ARE YOU HERE?!" *

"Ah, Franky," Chopper called out, ignoring Jimbe's mental breakdown, "Can you and Luffy grab Hachi when I lower him down?"

"Yeah sure." I replied, holding out my arms.

"Hey, if it isn't octoman! What the heck happened to you?!" Franky asked as we lowered Hachi to the ground. *

"That's what we've been trying to find out," I replied for Hachi, "But he won't tell us."

"HACHI?!" Jimbe yelled, now realising that Hachi wasn't supposed to be here either, "HOW DID YOU GET THOSE WOUNDS?! AND HOW IN THE WOLRDS ARE YOU HERE?! WERE YOU NOT CAPTURED ALONG WITH ARLONG?!" *

I sighed as a cacophony of idiocy started, with Jimbe's stupidly slow reactions and Sanji trying to seduce Shirahoshi, I ignored all of this and instead introduced myself to the one who was coating Sunny, Den-chan, Franky's teacher's brother apparently.

Meanwhile, Jimbe seemed to have recovered his wits, "Your majesty, Princess Shirahoshi! I know why you must have come here, but it is too dangerous for you to leave Shell tower!" *

"Uh-oh." I cried out, rushing forwards just in time to deflect the huge axe that had been heading straight for Shirahoshi, "This guy just doesn't take a hint!" I grumbled.

"You see! Why in the world did you bring the Princess here, Luffy-kun?!" Jimbe yelled, as if the axe proved his point…which in a way it did, but still…

"She deserves to see the world. You can't just let that bastard ruin her life, she deserves better than that!" I yelled back, "Besides, I'm protecting her! Right, Shirahoshi?"

"Yes!" She smiled back. *

"Off you go, Shirahoshi. You have a grave to visit." I grinned, watching out for any signs of dander as she happily swam away.

While we were waiting for Shirahoshi to say her prayers, Jimbe told my who's grave that was and why she hadn't been able to see it for so long…Decken-teme was getting throttled next time I saw him!

"LUFFY!" another voice called out from behind me.

"Oh!" I turned round in surprise, "NAMI! IT'S BEEN A WHILE!" I called back.

"BAKA!" She yelled, hitting me over the head, "do you have any idea how worried we've all been?!" She demanded, "Don't you ever do that again!"

"Sorry Nami. But I had to do it…and if I could go back in time and have that same option then I would do exactly the same thing." I replied seriously.

"Damn it." She sighed, "You and your morals…Anyway, I've got something to tell you…"

_**000000**_

_"Seriously?! That Hodie's got some nerve!" I growled, "What happened to Zoro and the others?!" I asked, even as Shirahoshi cried into my shirt…damn that girl could cry!_

_"I don't know." Nami replied, "I was going to go back for them once I found you guys…" She trailed off. _

_"There's something I have to tell you as well…" Jimbe added in._

_We all listened attentively as Jimbe told us about Queen Otohime and Fisher Tiger, how he assaulted Mariejoa and freed all of the captured slaves. And then how he formed the Sun Pirates, with Arlong, Jimbe and Hachi being part of his crew. He told us about Queen Otohime, about her ideals and her system of justice, despite her incredibly weak body, how she wanted for humans and fishmen to live in peace together and understand each other. He told us about how the Sun Pirates started off as a separate group, with members from the underground, from the palace guards and even from the slave trade, but when Fisher Tiger attacked Mariejoa they all dropped what they were doing and banded together to form the Sun Pirates. _

_How Otohime and Fisher Tiger clashed in their ideals and how the Queen strived for peace between the races while the Sun Pirates tried to prove that they were just as good, if not better than the humans. There were many clashes between the Sun Pirates and the marines but Fisher Tiger's rule remained sound; never take a life. It was here that Arlong and Fisher Tiger disagreed, Arlong wanted to make the humans cower in terror, and thought that Fisher Tiger's ideals were wrong and weak. It was a human girl that finally broke the Sun Pirate's Captain; the Sun Pirates took her in and broke her out of her habits as a slave, they had many good times together, but when he finally took her back to her home island, Fisher tiger was ambushed by the marines, set upon him by the villagers of that island…because they wanted to keep their daughter, even if it meant turning over her saviour in exchange…Fisher Tiger survived the assault, but in the frenzy his ship was destroyed and he was mortally wounded. He could have been saved, but they had no blood to do a transfusion…no Fishman blood in any case, and Fisher Tiger had finally snapped, and refused to have the tainted human blood running through his veins. _

_In his final moments he told his crew the truth, that he was actually a slave, and that he escaped and freed the other slaves as he refused to leave them behind to suffer at the madness of the humans that had enslaved them. He told his crew to strive for peace, to support Otohime, and to protect the children of the next generation, whether they be human or fishman. He died because of those villagers and those marines, because of their heartlessness, because of the Tenryuubito, he couldn't love humans anymore…_

_After Fisher Tiger's death, Arlong's hatred for humans only grew, leading to his capture and the true fate of Fisher Tiger being spread across the seas…although Arlong told them nothing of Fisher Tiger actually being a slave, nor what the marines did to him to cause his love of humans to shatter. And still, Otohime preached for peace, she campaigned on the streets to collect more signatures, but after five years of campaigning she only had 1000 signatures, out of five million inhabitants. It was only after one prominent speech that she made about the future of the children that she started to gain more supporters. _

_At the same time, Jimbe had been requested to become a Shichibukai, and had agreed, in exchange for Arlong's release and the pardon of all the Sun Pirates. It was there that the Sun Pirates fell apart, each going their separate ways. _

_But there was trouble at Fishman island, as a Tenryuubito had entered the island…he had been heavily injured and his ship was near collapse, but due to the nature of the Tenryuubito, the island's inhabitants were not likely to let him live, a gun was fired at him, but it was Queen Otohime that took the hit, she shielded him, because there were children watching. But the cowardly Tenryuubito didn't care that he had just been saved, and went to shoot the Queen…it is here that Shirahoshi comes in…she screamed out for her mother and the Sea Kings answered…_

_A few weeks later and the Tenryuubito was in perfect health, and still as ungrateful as ever, but Queen Otohime didn't care, she wanted to accompany him to the surface, to talk to him and the rest of the Tenryuubito, and accompany him she did. She returned, after many days of negotiation she had managed to pacify the Tenryuubito and gained their support for her petition. The Queen cried when she received millions of signatures, as before she had only had a thousand at best…but it was not to be…for just a few days later the box of signatures was set on fire and the Queen was shot…she died with her children at her side and a smile on her face. _

_All her efforts had been for nought though, as the one who had shot her, had been a human. _

_It was at this time that Shirahoshi started to receive love letters from Vander Decken, and for fear of snipers she and the princes were not allowed to go to the funeral. _

_But in the following ten years, thanks to their efforts, they were able to gather plenty of signatures again…_

_"Damn, you've had a rough time of it…" I muttered once Jimbe had finished his tale and Nami had forgiven him for his part in Arlong's release and torment on East Blue." _

_ BZZZZZ…._

_"Hmm…" I turned around, trying to find the source of the buzzing._

_"A visual snail…" Den pointed out, drawing my eyes to the huge snail._

_A few seconds later and a fuzzy picture started to form above the snail._

_"Ah!" Nami yelled, pointing to the picture of what was obviously a Fishman, "It's him!"*_

_"Ah…" the image said, "Inhabitants of Fishman Island…Dan you hear me?...I am the Captain of the 'New Fishmen Pirate Gang' of the Fishmen District…Hodie Jones!"*_

_"So this is the bastard that's trying to ruin Otohime's desire." I growled, from what Jimbe had told us I had come to greatly respect the Queen…she had stood up for her goals and had not been afraid to die for them. _

_"People of Fishman Island and the Ryuuguu Kingdom…" Hodie continued, unaware of my commentary, "I have something to tell you."*_

_"I am a bastard and you should kill me now." I finished, much to the disbelief of Jimbe and the amusement of my gathered crew and Shirahoshi. _

_"This country…will be destroyed! And then, it will be reborn! I am…" *_

_"A twat." I finished again. _

_"…your new king!" *_

_"…Delusional." I corrected myself. _

_"Anyone who desires peace with the humans…" Hodie frowned. *_

_"…Should stay right here, I'm going to get my ass kicked by the Mugiwaras quite soon…" I grinned, now having lots of fun with this. _

_"…should leave the country at once!" Hodie finished. *_

_I tuned out the next bit of his speech in favour of seeing how the rest of my crew were taking this, Shirahoshi was a little upset but was snickering at my running commentary…as were the rest of my crew for that matter. Jimbe was frowning and looked like he was trying not to laugh at my alternate speech and Den was outright laughing. _

_I tuned back in and the frowned at the turn this speech was taking, _

_"The worlds of the family of Neptune have dulled your minds!" Hodie roared, "You have all been goaded into walking willingly to your deaths! Open your eyes to the truth!" * _

_"Fucking psychopath…" I muttered, glaring at the image on the monitor. _

_"See for yourselves!" Hodie yelled, as the image zoomed out to reveal king Neptune in chains, "This once mighty warrior…Your beloved Neptune has grown old!" * _

_"FATHER!" Shirahoshi yelled in shock. _

_"It is time for us to say goodbye to the old Ryuuguu Kingdom!" Hodie continued, "In three hours time, at the Gyoncord Plaza…I will strike the head from this worthless king's shoulders!" *_

_"It's okay, Shirahoshi, I won't let that happen." I reassured the trembling princess. _

_"Here in Ryuuguu palace I have found something very interesting…this letter from the Tenryuubito…that Queen Otohime risked her life to obtain ten years ago! If I destroy it now, it will never be replaces. And here in this box behind me I have the signatures of over half the population of this country! JAHAHAHA! To think that so many would consent to the foolish notion of joining hands with the humans in harmony…The people whose names are written in this box have made clear their opposition to my new kingdom. In other words…a list of filthy traitors!" *_

_"The man is insane…" Nami growled. _

_"There will be no more treading on the images of Otohime. That is a test that anyone can clear if they have to courage to conceal their true beliefs." Hodie continued maniacally, "These signatures are the unshakeable proof of who stands with me and who stands against me!" _

_"No way…" Chopper breathed, seeing where this was going. _

_"The people of this list will have to be disposed of!" _

_"He's talking about killing millions of people!" I growled. _

_"And finally…" Hodie said, bringing the speech to a close, "I address the Mugiwara Pirates!"_

_"Shit…as if this could get any worse…" Sanji cursed. _

_"Take a good took!" Hodie screeched, as the image changed to that of a cage holding Zoro, Usopp and Brook, "I don't doubt that you are watching this broadcast from a monitor somewhere on this island! These are the humans who crushed the ambitions of the noble Arlong Pirated, who fought for the rage of our race!"_

_I swore, profusely…this was bad…_

_"By the time the king's execution is complete this room will be flooded completely. That alone will be enough to take the lives of these inferior humans, yes?!" Hodie chuckled. _

_Correction…this was very very bad. _

_"Mugiwara no Luffy! Your head is worth 500 million beli! The lives of your crew will serve as a perfect example to the humans on the surface!"_

_Damn, I thought, Ace and Sabo would kill me when this was over…not to mention the rampage that they would go on if I did die…oh the chaos…Hodie would be stabbed and fried and punched and kicked and blood would paint the kingdom…_

_"Now! It is time for us to start clearing out the trash of the old Ryuuguu Kingdom! In three hours time, this country will be reborn as a new Fishman Island of dignity and pride!" Hodie finished before the monitor flicked off. *_

_"Well, this had gone to hell in a hand basket…" I sighed, "Okay, let's plan; I have to save Zoro, Usopp and Brook; find Robin; fight Hodie; murder the guy who hurt Surume; murder Decken-teme for ruining Shirahoshi's life; save King Neptune; find out and then brutally beat up the one who framed me and all before Sabo and Ace arrive in a day or two….I am going to have my work cut out for me…" I sighed again. _

_"Well at least I won't have to fight you on this one…" Jimbe offered. _

_"Yeah yeah…" I groaned, "Shirahoshi, I'm leaving you in Sanji and Nami's care for the moment while me and Jimbe hash this out, go have a look round and see if you can find Robin while you're at it." _

_"Okay Luffy-sama." Shirahoshi agreed. _

_"Luffy! If you weren't a man I would kiss you right now!" Sanji yelled overjoyed at being with both Shirahoshi and Nami at the same time, and later on Robin too. _

_"Yeah yeah." I waved him off, as I plopped myself down to hash out battle tactics with Jimbe. _

_Three hours later…at the plaza…_

_The family of Neptune lay in chains, along with Jimbe and Shirahoshi…of course this was all part of the plan, and I was standing, under an illusion, just mere feet away from Hodie, ready to knock him down on Shirahoshi's signal. _

_Of course this is when __someone__ decided that my life wasn't complicated enough and that I needed a damn prophecy hanging over my head as well._

_"Hodie Jones!" I voice called out from the ledge above the plaza._

_"Madam Shirley!" Hodie called out in surprise, I stood there in shock…Madam Shirley…as in the mermaid that could predict the future that Ace and Sabo told me about…shit…_

_"I once made the prediction 'a man will come…and destroy Fishman Island.'" Shirley called out. *_

_Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit. I had the sudden urge to both punch Hodie and to start banging my head against the wall._

_"Well, in essence, I'm destroying the island. So, was it me you saw in your visions then?!" Hodie replied. *_

_"No." Shirley grinned, "The man who will destroy this island is Mugiwara no Luffy!" _

_FUCK NO! I did not need something like this hanging over me! I was just going to ignore it…although this could work in my favour…I mused ignoring Hodie's screams of denial…what I couldn't ignore was when the bastard shot Shirley…spewed about her brother Arlong and then admitted to killing Queen Otohime!_

_"I already knew…" Shirahoshi cried out, breaking the plaza out of their shock._

_"What?!"Jimbe yelled out. _

_"Shirahoshi?!" The king cried out in shock. _

_ "What do you mean you knew that I killed your mother, Shirahoshi?!" Hodie demanded. _

_"Megalo told me in secret," Shirahoshi replied, "He used to be the Neptune army's pet, he saw everything that happened that day!" *_

_"Princess Shirahoshi! Then why did you never tell us?!" Jimbe asked. *_

_"I thought someone would be sure to hols resentment towards Hodie!" Shirahoshi cried out, "That would make mother sad! It was the promise I made with mother on her deathbed! Whoever the killer was, no matter where from, I should bear no hatred against them!" She sobbed, tears dripping down her cheeks. _

_God that girl was strong…to bear the burden of bearing no hatred for her mother's killer…all on her own for ten years…it took all of my will power not to bash Hodie's brains in when he mocked and belittled her for it. _

_I stood stubbornly still as the rest of the helpless crowd called out my name and asked me to ravage the island and to destroy it now to prevent the death of their king…I had to wait for the signal…_

_"LUFFY-SAMA! PLEASE PROTECT FATHER!" Shirahoshi screamed just as Hodie started to swing his sword down to Neptune's neck. _

_"Of course!" I yelled back, dropping the illusion and appearing as if from nowhere, crouching next to Neptune and stopping Hodie's sword with my Haki coated hand, before bringing up a Haki coated leg and kicking him straight in the solar plexus, sending him flying into the coral wall that surrounded the plaza. _

_I, again, ignored the calls of my name and instead focussed on Nami, who had just dropped her mirage and appeared beside me, letter from the Tenryuubito in hand._

_"I got the letter, and I gave the keys to Robin." She smirked. _

_"Good work." Me and Jimbe grinned, as loud clinks were heard as the chains fell from the Neptune family. _

_"HOÉ! Get the king and the princes out of here!" I yelled at the royal whale while Franky and Sunny caused a distraction using the Gaon cannon_

_I grinned as Sunny landed and the rest of my crew walked out to join me. _

_"IT'S THE MUGIWARAS!" *_

_"THEY ALL CAME!" *_

_"DO YOU REALLY MEAN TO TAKE DOWN THIS ISLAND?!" *_

_"WHY DID YOU OCCUPY THE RYUUGUU PALACE!" *_

_"DID YOU KIDNAP THE MERMAIDS?!"_

_"PLEASE ANSWER! ARE YOU FRIENDS OR FOES TO FISHMAN ISLAND?!"_

_ I sighed at the plethora of questions and simply adjusted my hat to sit properly on my head, _

_"Friends or foes…?" I echoed, a wave of silence following my words, "Stuff like that…YOU DECIDE!" * There was a moment of silence following my words before the crowd started cheering. _

_I smirked at the accomplishment, and turned to my crew just in time to get squeezed to death by Zoro, I spluttered for a second at the sheer force he put into his hug and then couched when I was abruptly released, only to splutter again when he started to check me over, looking for any signs of injuries. _

_"All clear." He turned to tell the rest of the crew, who sighed slightly in relief. _

_"Okay…" I sighed when Zoro's actions went unexplained, "There are roughly 100,000 of them…" I said, doing a quick Haki count – that mean that I made a rough estimate of how many presences there were in the plaza –, "Not including Hodie and his main minions."_

_We happily chatted over Hodie's speech, my nakama quickly got me up to date with what had happened and I filled them in on what I had done…that was until Hodie decided to mention the taboo subject…_

_"I'LL BE THE TRUE PIRATE KING!" He yelled, causing me to freeze mid sentence and making the rest of the crew chuckle at his stupidity. _

_I strode forwards, heedless of the shouts and screams of the pirates trying to surround me and their cries of how my bounty would be theirs. Instead I focussed on the build up of Haoshoku Haki inside of me, and when I thought that I had built it up enough, I let it loose. Sending it flying across the battlefield, knocking out half of the fighters there in an instant, _

_"Hodie…" I addressed the madman in charge, "I guess it's you that's at the top of my hit list, you've already pissed me off with your delusions of grandeur and locking up my nakama…but now you're going down…there's no need for more than one Pirate King!" I yelled, leaping into the fray,_

_"GEAR THIRD!" I yelled, planning on showing off one of my newest moves, "KYOJIN!" I yelled as my whole body inflated until I stood there, ten times larger and just as pissed off, thank god for lycra, "Bring as many thousands as you want, I'll tear 'em all down!" _

_"Well shit…" I heard Sanji mutter, "We'd better get a move on or he's not gonna leave us anything!" he said, scrambling forwards along with the rest of my crew. _

_"Way ahead of you dart-brow." Zoro called back, already cutting down his opponents. _

_ (__**A/N: All fights from here on except for Luffy's are cannon.)**_

"SURUME!" I yelled, calling him out from his hiding place and letting him loose into the fray…now I knew that Hodie had been behind his family's disappearance when the bastard tried to threaten him…good thing that Surume has me helping him now, instead of that bastard.

"HODIE!" I roared, literally deafening most of the fighters on the battlefield, "I'M COMING FOR YOU NOW!" I cried, shrinking down back to my normal size and walking straight towards the bastard.

"MUGIWARA!" One of Hody's commanders cried out from my right.

"WE WON'T LET YOU REACH THE CAPTAIN!" Another yelled from my left.

I kept on walking, not at all surprised when the two commanders were intercepted by Sanji and Zoro.

I flickered out of sight for a moment, appearing in front of Hodie and kicking him straight in the jaw, sending a spray of blood flying from his mouth,

"Where's Decken?! He should be here with Noah by now!" Hodie yelled.

"I intercepted Decken-teme and beat him up, then I left him chained up to the palace rails with sea stone cuffs and chains." I replied, "Your plan with Noa failed." I smirked.

"Damn it!" Hodie cursed, pushing his way out of the debris that my attack had sent him flying into, "Do you know what Fishman Karate is?!" He yelled in desperation.

I dodged his attack easily, "That wouldn't work on me anyway…" I told him, "I'm made of rubber!" I cocked my fist back, "Armament Gomu Gomu no…" I started,

"IRON SHELL DIVISION!" Hodie cried out, desperate to counter my attack.

"…PISTOL!" I punched straight through the shell and hit the man standing behind it instead, "Too weak…" I muttered.

Meanwhile Hodie tried to catch me unawares by attacking while my hand was still stuck through the shell…needless to say his attempt failed.

I blocked his attack by raising the Haki covered arm that wasn't stuck in the shell, and flipped over his leg to nail him straight in the head with a Haki enforced round house, sending him head first into the ground.

While he was freeing his head from the ground I finally managed to free my arm from the shell and watched blankly as he threw hundreds of fist sized water 'balls' at me, a short application of Observation Haki had be swiftly dodging in between all of them, before I stretched my arm back and nailed him in the face again, sending him flying back into the coral wall.

"This is boring…" I muttered, a terrifying grin stretching across my face as I decided to kick the fight up a notch, "Genjutsu…" I muttered, seeing Hodie start to get up, "Niruida." I smirked, projecting the illusion across the battlefield.

To everyone else it appeared that my body was stretching out of proportion and that another body was growing out of mine; it must have seemed pretty horrifying, but to me, nothing had happened – although I could 'feel' my other illusion double, that way we could appear to fight in sync and even talk in sync –, from my point of view everyone had started to stare at a spot slightly to my left, where my illusion double was standing.

"Now Hodie…" I started, grinning widely.

"Let's have some fun~!" My illusion double finished as we both got into mirrored fighting poses and launched at the unsuspecting Hodie.

"What the hell?!" He cried out, seeing my illusion double, "What kind of power is this?!" He screamed, avoiding my illusion's fake punch and dodging into the perfect position to be hit by me very real punch, sending him crashing into the ground, where he rolled out of the way and just about avoided the illusion's fake kick and instead rolled towards me, where I was able to happily kick him back into the coral wall.

And so it continued, with my fake leading him towards me with fake attacks, which was when I was able to hit him with a real attack. Unfortunately he managed to break through the defence and bit into my shoulder with his shark teeth – he must have been quite desperate though as I sensed his unconscious use of Haki to harden his teeth, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to break through my Haki, which was still weak against some types of piercing attack, which was my rubber power's weakness.

I gasped slightly at the amount of blood I was losing; he must have hit a blood vessel, and I was forced to end my illusion, letting it seem as if my double just melted back into my body.

"Hodie…" I deadpanned, "You…you have hatred in your eyes…but they are empty…what did we do to you? What did the humans do to you to cause such hatred?" I asked him, bringing an abrupt halt to our battle.

"….Nothing…" Hodie replied.

"I see…" I nodded slightly, "You're the result of the environment. You are the result of the festered hatred that was allowed to grow in the Fishman District. Because of that hatred you probably grew up around others who hater humans, you were taught to hate them, you know nothing better than to hate them. You are an empty enemy, one who has not been cruelly hurt under the oppression of certain people; hell, Shirahoshi has more reason to hate humans than you do! Hachi and Jimbe have better reasons to hate humans than you are your group does! And do they?! NO!" I yelled, furious at this reasonless man, who had never suffered and yet lashed out anyway.

"MUGIWARA! YOU KNOW AS WELL AS I DO WHO CREATED HODIE! OUR IGNORANCE! IF WE KEEP GOING LIKE THIS, FISHMAN ISLAND WILL DESTROY ITSELF THROUGH OUR HATRED AGAINST HUMANS!" Prince Fukaboshi cried from his place aboard Hoé, "MUGIWARA…PLEASE! WE DON'T NEED A PAST! PLEASE SET IT BACK TO ZERO! PLEASE RID US OF THESE SPRIRTS THAT KEEP THIS ISLAND FROM THE SUN! BY YOUR HANDS! SET FISHMAN ISLAND BACK TO ZERO!" He cried. *

"Keep blabbering, Fukaboshi…The grudge of the Fishman race will last forever!" Hodie yelled triumphantly. *

"BROHOSHI!" I yelled, my voice cutting through Hodie's insane laughter, "Don't worry. From the moment we got to the plaza, we had already decided with Jimbe that we wouldn't let anyone harm Fishman Island! Leave everything to us! We're friends, right?" I grinned as he nodded in agreement.

"I'll finish this now!" I turned back to face Hodie, cocking back my fish and entering into Gear Second, I compressed Haki into my arm and grinned as it burst into flames, much to the shock of Hodie, "GOMU GOMU NO…" I yelled, shooting forwards, even as Hodie tried to retreat,

"**RED HAWK!**" I yelled, my explosive punch impacting dead on his chest and exploding out of his back, leaving him charred and coughing up blood, I stepped back as he collapsed face first onto the ground and I could sense that he had blacked out.

I sighed in relief, I had finally stopped the insane bastard, but at the same time I was drenched in blood, all of it my own,

"Shit…" I cursed, "Gotta get to Chopper…" I teetered slightly, groaning when a large hand moved to support me.

"Luffy-sama…" Shirahoshi sobbed, "Your injury…"

"I know…" I coughed, "Can you get me to Chopper please?"

"Yes." She nodded, cradling me in her hands, and swimming furiously over to my crew, who were now gathered around Sunny, "PLEASE SAVE HIM!" She yelled, and I winced at the loud cry, "LUFFY-SAMA'S BLEEDING WON'T STOP!" *

I was barely conscious when she set me down next to the Sunny, my vision kept flickering and I clenched my eyes shut to avoid the headache-inducing spots that danced across my vision, I groaned when I felt a needle in my neck and grimaced when I heard Chopper say that I didn't have enough blood…

"Isn't there anyone with blood type F here?!" I heard Chopper yell. *

"No one else in our group's got F but Luffy!" Was Franky's cry. *

"Isn't there anyone at the plaza?!" Sanji joined in. *

"ANYONE?!" Chopper called out again.*

Silence.

Nothing but silence.

Fuck~. Ace and Sabo were going to throw a fit when they got here, and dying from blood loss wasn't really the way I wanted to go. Not to mention that Ace and Sabo would find out who had type F and were present at the time – I refused to believe that F was that rare – and they would track down and brutally beat up those who hadn't helped me if I died here. Which would just lead to the grudge between the races festering again and all my work would be undone…DAMN IT! I WAS NOT JUST GOING TO LIE DOWN AND DIE!

"That's right! According to this country's law you can't give blood to a human!" Chopper cried out suddenly. *

Well fuck…I was going to die at this rate…

"My blood type's different, but it's red! Is it no good?!" I heard Shirahoshi sob.*

…Damn that girl's so selfless…at least she tried…that might be enough to make Ace and Sabo pause in their rampage…for about five minutes while they thank her for trying…then the rampage would continue….

"Use my blood! It's F! I'll give as much as you need!" Thank god, Jimbe I could kiss you right now… *

I sighed in relief once Chopper had set up the drip and felt the dizziness fade.

"Thanks Jimbe…" I smiled, laughing at my nakama's delighted cries in response to my words.

"What? You were conscious huh…" Jimbe replied, "It's no problem, you're welcome."

"Hey Jimbe," I blinked my eyes open and turned slightly to face him, "Will you join my crew?"

He blinked at me for a second before shaking his head, "I have things to do first…" He replied.

"And after that…?" I responded.

"Then please invite me again." He replied.

"Sure!" I grinned, "Now let's get out of here! If we stay we'll be roped into clearing up!" I yelled, yanking the drip out of my arm and leaping onto Sunny as if I was never injured.

The rest of my crew paled at the thought of cleaning up and quickly followed my lead.

"Where are we going though?!" Nami asked as soon as we were afloat.

"Ryuuguu palace!" I replied, "I was promised a feat and I'll get my feast!"

My crew sighed at the predictable answer.

"Besides," I continued as if I hadn't heard them, "I can sense that Ace and Sabo are almost here, and I want a good place to meet them. On a battlefield and covered in blood is a bad place to be when they arrive."

"Yeah…" Usopp agreed.

"They'll go nuts." Chopper nodded.

"Especially if they see you half dead, even now you still look really pale." Zoro pointed out.

"Damn, he's right." Nami frowned, handing me a compact mirror so that I could see for myself.

"Shit." I swore, I was _very _pale and I only had an hour or so to clean up, "Right! I'm going to get washed and changed and then we'll go to this feast!" I rushed to the bathroom, snagging some clean clothes as I did, before diving into the bathroom and locking the door behind me…damn their brother complexes!

_Half an hour later…_

I came out of the bathroom quite refreshed, my hair was still a little damp, but I was clean of any dried blood and now all I had to do was get Chopper to re-do my bandages and put my fresh shirt on and I was all set.

To my surprise all of my crew were still there, apparently waiting for me, and I grinned at them when they finally noticed me, although they looked a little shocked at my appearance…I had no idea why, it's not as if they haven't all seen it before.

"What's with the new tattoo Luffy?" Zoro called out from behind me, hands grasping my shoulders and spinning me around so that the rest of the crew could see.

"It's a surprise for Ace and Sabo, they haven't seen it yet." I chucked, feeling their eyes rake my back, gazing sharply at the tattoo that spanned my shoulders and down to my hips.

The tattoo – a large pirate style warship with three masts and a different flag on each one of them, one was the symbol of the Mugiwara Pirates, my flag, the second was the original mark of the Spade pirates, Ace's flag and the third was two crossbones with a blue 'S' drawn over the top of it, the third was Sabo's flag – was supposed to be a surprise for my brothers, so I was quite anxious to cover it up again.

"Okay." I said, ducking out of Zoro's grip, "Now that we've all seen that, Chopper, can you re-do my bandages please?"

"Sure." Chopper smiled, pulling me over to sit on the grass while he pulled out a new roll of bandages and got to work.

"How far away are they now?" Franky asked, referring to my brothers.

"They should be here in ten minutes, give or take, their using my vivre card to find me." I replied, urging Chopper to move faster.

"We've never met Sabo, what's he like?" Nami asked curiously.

"You'll see." I smirked, outright laughing at the pout that she sent back at me.

"Well, me, Robin and Franky have never met either of your brothers, are they a lot like you?" Brook asked.

"Very different." Me, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Chopper and Sanji replied.

"At least, we know that Ace is in any case." Sanji explained, "We've met him."

"They're here." I called out, quickly dragging on my clean shirt, just in time too…

"LUFFY!" A blue blur shot over the railing, weaving through the stunned crew and coming to stop right in front of me.

"Hey Sabo." I addressed my oldest brother, "Where's Ace?" I asked.

"HERE!" Another blur flew over the railing, coming to stop next to Sabo, who grinned at his twin and then locked his eyes on me, their smiles quickly dropping from their faces and large frowns replacing them.

"Luffy… Why are you so pale…?" Sabo started with accusing eyes.

"…And _why _are you wearing bandages?" Ace finished, turning his glare towards the rest of the crew, his eyes practically demanding answers from them.

I sighed, pulling them down to sit beside me, and started to tell them everything that had happened since I had left the Moby. Of course my tale was met with a fierce rant on how they had taught me better that this and how I should have called them at the first signs of trouble. When I got to the part where I nearly died from blood loss they immediately flipped out…

"DAMN IT LUFFY! YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN MORE CAREFUL!" Ace screamed, fire dancing across his body.

"AND THOSE UNGRATEFUL BASTARDS! YOUR BLOOD TYPE ISN'T RARE AT ALL! THOSE COWARDS WERE JUST GOING TO LET YOU DIE!" Sabo yelled, Haki creeping across his clenched fists.

…Of course, this led to me calming them down and them latching onto me and refusing to let go. This in turn led to them ripping my shirt, revealing the large amount of bandages spanning my neck, shoulder and torso, which led to another ranting session…

"WHO THE HELL HURT YOU THIS BADLY?!"

"WE'LL KILL THEM!"

…This led to me pulling off the bandages, much to Chopper's horror, and actually showing them how bad the wound was…not very by that point…and I eventually managed to shock them into silence when I turned my back to them, forgetting that I no longer had anything covering my tattoo, and started to get up to have Chopper re-do my bandages for the third time today…

I let out a loud, very unmanly yelp when I was dragged back down by a strong pair of arms and landed roughly on Sabo's lap. I was then promptly turned to the side so that they could both get a good look at my back. I sighed as the tight grip around my waist mean that I couldn't move, at least I wasn't bleeding.

I suppressed a giggle when hands traced the huge tattoo on my back, it tickled damn it, but I wanted some of my pride intact, and the yelp hadn't helped me do that.

I huffed when they point blank refused to release me…I had a feast waiting for me! I wanted meat!

"Where's the old geezer and Marco?" I finally asked, pointedly trying to ignore my growling stomach.

"Couldn't make it." Ace replied briefly, going back to his inspection of my tattoo.

"Another Yonkou had decided to visit just before we were set to leave, so they stayed behind to chat to them and we came alone." Sabo elaborated.

"Oh…Okay…" I muttered, "Are you done now?"

"For now." They both sighed, letting me go reluctantly.

"Great. Let's go get some food." I growled, echoing my stomach's cries as I dragged them both towards the railing closest to the palace's entrance, "Chopper, can you bandage my wound inside?" I asked, not pausing in my haste to get some food in me…I was famished.

"Yeah." Chopper agreed, his stomach also growling.

"Good." I leapt over the railing, making sure to bang both Ace's and Sabo's heads on the floor when I landed at the palace entrance.

"Kyokutan ni, Luffy." They groaned, holding their aching heads.

"Serves you right for keeping me there. I'm always famished after I fight and you know it!" I growled, stomping off to find some food.

Kyokutan ni my ass. If I'd really acted on my hunger then I would have tied them up on the ship and then ate in front of them…Kyokutan ni…yeah right…

**END**

**A/N: sorry this took so long to get out, but it's just in time for Christmas, which was the deadline that I promised to one of my reviewers! I had real writer's block on this one so I don't know when the next instalment will come out. And yes, I havemake this into a series instead of just a load of oneshots. **

**Translations below VV**

**Tenebrae over and out…ready to get some sleep…damn it's late! **

* Means that the dialogue in that sentence is taken almost directly from the manga or anime.

Teme – means bastard

Seijō – literally means normality or normalcy

Kyojin – means giant or titan

Niruida – means double or two-base hit

Kyokutan ni – too far

**Answers to reviews**

**doubledamn – it's an illusion. **

**Constructive – thanks for the advice…although I'm not sure if I took it into account properly. **

**To everyone who asked for a sequel…here it is! ^^^^**

**dianesullivan – reunion included, did you like it?**

**Lightningblade49 – not sure if I can do flirting…I'm pretty stunted in that area…**

**All those who asked for me to make this into one story…done…do you like the title?**

**And finally…. **

**Review please!**


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